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 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: 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
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.