UP-CAT

The Utah Postdoc Curriculum design And Teaching (UP-CAT) program is a mentored opportunity for bioscience postdocs interested in learning to design and teach a university course. Janet Lindsley, Professor of Biochemistry and former Assistant Dean of Curriculum for the school of medicine, works with a team of postdocs each year to create and teach an advanced undergraduate biology course. The course is designed to help students read the research literature and each year the team of postdocs chooses a topic area that matches their combined interests. Past topic areas have included: structural biology, adaptive immune response, body weight regulation, the human-microbe arms race, mRNA vaccine development, the gut-brain axis, autophagy and apoptosis, and mitochondrial metabolism. Recruitment and selection of committed postdocs occurs each fall, course development occurs during the winter and spring, and the postdocs teach their own course during half of the following summer semester. Interested postdocs should contact Janet Lindsley directly at janet@biochem.utah.edu

Past UP-CAT participants have been remarkably successful, securing faculty positions at: Claremont/Pitzer/Scripps Colleges, Colgate University, Northwestern University, Earlham College, University of Utah (3), University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire

Dr. Furhman Teaching Standing — Photo by Corey Nolan (CC BY-NC 2.0)

Backward Curriculum Design Process

One of the most important skills that postdocs who participate in this program learn is how to effectively use backwards design. Simply stated, backwards design is an approach based on starting with a clear articulation of desired outcomes; it’s far easier to achieve your goals if you know what your true goals are. This sounds obvious, but is not in fact how many of us typically operate. Only after all of the postdocs on the team designing the course agree on the specific desired outcomes do we move on to designing appropriate assessments and finally learning activities. The process used is described in a publication from the inaugural team of postdocs who collaborated to develop the program with Dr. Lindsley.

PAST POSTDOC EXPERIENCES WITH UP-CAT

This training program allows postdocs to learn the modern “team-based-learning (TBL)” teaching technique in practice. Compared to the traditional lecture-based teaching method, TBL allows more student engagement and encourages problem solving. Through teaching this class, I have gained a lot of skills in designing reverse classroom courses, moderating student group learning, team working, and tailoring for individual student needs. This program has and will continue to propel me on my way to a more successful educator.
-Gary Zhao

“This CAT definitely UP’ed my professional life! Learning backwards design is just opening your eyes about what you might have done wrong in your presentations, posters and even day to day communications. Ask yourself first: What would I like my audience to be able to do/ know/ learn when I am done. How do I get them there and what background do they need to be able to get there? Applying this concept in this course for curriculum design will drive this concept home for you. You will be able to apply it throughout your professional life and even improve your personal interactions. Maybe you even fall in love with teaching, just as I did? Great! No matter what… you will learn skills for life, make new friends and will be guided by an incredible passionate mentor! UPCAT changed my life!”
-Esther Nuebel

"Participating in the UP-CAT program was an extremely valuable experience for me. Designing a course from scratch with Janet's mentorship has made me more confident in my ability to develop an effective college level course. I not only learned about and applied backward curriculum design, I also got to explore a course topic that's outside my research expertise through collaboration with a team of postdocs. Figuring out what the best pre-class learning materials and in-class activities were for the students was a fun challenge, and I was able to practice various teaching techniques. Seeing the students progress from understanding the concepts and findings in research papers to being able to propose experiments for future research was especially rewarding. The UP-CAT program gave me an opportunity to explore and confirm my passion in teaching and made me more certain about my career path."
-Wei-Chun Wang

View UP-CAT Testimonials