TeachWeek to Highlight Innovative Education, January 17–23

Caltech's Center for Teaching, Learning, and Outreach (CTLO) will host its second annual TeachWeek program from January 17–23. The event celebrates the impact of teaching, featuring events and discussions with Caltech faculty, alumni, TAs, and staff as well as open classes, workshops, and talks with guest presenters.

TeachWeek, whose theme this year is "Empowering Learning," focuses on Caltech's recent efforts to create an innovative learning environment that changes the world through unique teaching techniques. "Year round, Caltech faculty and teaching assistants are investing time and energy in teaching not for its own sake, but to empower students to learn and do more—to go further with their passion, research, and creativity," says CTLO director Cassandra Horii. "That's where our theme, empowering learning, comes from; during TeachWeek, you get a glimpse of the variety of ways Caltech is empowering learning today, as well as new ways we might do so in the coming years."

Caltech faculty, teaching assistants, and others are featured in the opening panel, titled "Empowering Learning through Teaching at Caltech and Beyond," and the closing event, "Ignite Your Teaching: Ideas and Practices You Can Use," with introductory remarks by Caltech president Thomas Rosenbaum.

Guest presenters will include Mary-Ann Winkelmes, a senior fellow of the Association of American Colleges and Universities from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, who will give the keynote talk about and lead a workshop in "Teaching with Transparency: Empowering Equitable Learning." In addition, John Pollard, associate professor of practice in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of Arizona and co-author of the nationally recognized Chemical Thinking curriculum and book, will present a talk titled "Questioning Why and How We Gather Students Together: Empowering Changes in Curricula and Teaching."

The event is open to the entire Caltech community. Visitor seats in open classes may be limited due to space and activities; you can reserve space online as well as get more information about the week's slate of activities at teachweek.caltech.edu.