Teaching-as-research internships: a model for the development of future chemistry faculty and the improvement of teaching in science, technology, engineering, and math

Abstract

Over the past decade, the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW-Madison) and Madison Area Technical College (Madison College) partnered to create an internship pathway for graduate students pursuing careers as future science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) faculty members. Since 2003, 10 doctoral students from the university completed teaching internship appointments with the technical college chemistry department. Interns benefited from a variety of teaching and educational experiences that helped lay the foundations for their future teaching careers. Following completion of their internships, many students secured employment in higher education as new instructors and enthusiastic members of the teaching profession. Intern projects also benefited veteran faculty mentors at Madison College, and the experience provided a rich forum for collaboration that generated curricular and instructional innovations in the classroom. Centered on the three pillars of teaching-as-research, learning community, and learning through diversity, the internship program created at UW-Madison and implemented at Madison College provides a model pathway for preparing future STEM faculty. This approach provides clear benefits not only for the future faculty who are trained, but also for veteran faculty mentors, for the host institution, and for the undergraduate students impacted by the educational innovations. This paper examines the key attributes of this program, with the hope that our experience may be disseminated and replicated to benefit others.