Carnegie Mellon University
The Sciences Teaching Club - Department of Biological Sciences

From left to right: Club members, Emily Furbee, Melissa Witzberger, Ken Hovis and Elane Fishilevich, judging the Pittsburgh Regional Science Fair.

Teaching club? What's that?

The Teaching Club is organized by students who expect that teaching will play a role in their future. The club is a rallying point for students (primarily undergraduates, graduate students, and postdoctral fellows) who are interested in improving their teaching effectiveness, as well as accumulating documented teaching experience for their CVs. "Membership" is informal - there is no treehouse. Our events are open to everyone interested, though some may be capped by space considerations. Teaching club officers organize a variety of events through the academic year, including seminars, discussion panels, workshops, and outreach opportunities that are geared towards providing first-hand teaching experience, and knowledge about teaching as well as the process of acquiring teaching-related jobs.

What are you guys up to?

The goals of the teaching club are:

  • Enhance the skills of graduate students in preparing for a future career involving teaching.
  • Learn pedagogy through workshops and seminars.
  • Encourage students to seek out teaching experience.
  • Provide members with documentation of teaching experience upon completion of Eberly Center training and seminars.
  • Students are also encouraged to tutor local high school and college students and to serve as judges at the local science fairs.

Hmm, I'm tentatively interested.

Great, we're not demanding commitment or anything. Keep your eyes open for our events; if one looks attractive to you, just show up and partake.

This sounds awesome! I'm gung-ho about participating.

Show up to our events. Join our mailing list. Shoot us an e-mail and ask about open officer positions; we'd love to get people with fresh ideas and enthusiasm.