“SLiThEr - Supporting Learning with Interactive Teaching: a Hosted, Engaging Roundtable”
Speaker: Chip Nataro, Lafayette College
Thursday, November 18th / Time 7:00 pm
The Interactive Online Network of Inorganic Chemists (IONiC) is a community of transformation dedicated to improving the teaching and learning of inorganic chemistry. When the pandemic reached the US, the community responded in a variety of ways to help each other make the adjustments we all faced in our classes. From how to Zoom to developing remote laboratory experiences, IONiC helped countless members get through the spring semester of 2020 offering students the best experience possible given the circumstances. As the summer continued and the shutdowns remained, the leadership of IONiC sought out new ways to keep the community engaged. This was the origin of what has become a biweekly series of presentations/discussions on any topic that might be of interest to the community. The first step was creating a name for this series. The chosen name was Supporting Learning with Interactive Teaching: A Hosted, Engaging Roundtable or SLiThEr, keeping with our snake motif and being able to spell things out with element symbols. Once that was decided upon, the format for the first SLiThEr was developed. These would be 20-30 presentations with time for Q&A after. We would have people sign up to prevent Zoom-bombing and we would record these to post on our YouTube channel. The first SLiThEr happened on July 7th, 2020. It was by Kyle Grice at DePaul and focused on materials he created having to move his inorganic lab online. Since that time, we have hosted 26 additional SLiThErs with topics including alternative assessment, mental health, flipping the classroom, scaffolding oral exams and searching for a job at a PUI. The leadership of ‘Team SLiThEr’ now consists of 6 people, half of which are members of the IONiC leadership team. This presentation will cover background on the IONiC community, the development of the SLiThEr series and will provide a sneak peek into some of the interesting things we have learned along the way.
