Nick Panasik
npanasik@claflin.edu
JST #221

• Nick Panasik
• Research
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• Facilities
• Publications
• Teaching & Learning
• Novel Course Creation
• Merck-AAAS Program in Interdisciplinary Learning
• Teaching & Leadership Course
• Protein Structure & Function Course
• Biochemistry Lab Course
• Persuasive Writing in Contemporary Science Course
• Faculty Development
• Graduate TA Training
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Graduate Teaching Assistant Training

One of the best ways to learn a subject is to teach it.

The academic path towards becoming a professor in the sciences rarely ever involves any classical training in teaching. Undergraduates rarely have TA responsibilities. Even in the best graduate programs, new graduate students are typically handed a lab manual and unleashed  upon an undergraduate laboratory class. After gaining a Ph.D., those pursuing a career as a professor will find a Post-Doctoral Fellowship - primarily a research position. After approximately 2 years they will look for an Assistant Professorship at some university and almost immediately begin teaching. 

Claflin University's approach to academic and professional development is much different. Our Masters Program in Biotechnology offers a novel course designed by Dr. Panasik called Teaching & Leadership. Taken concurrently with their first TA assignment, this course introduces and provides workshops in student-centered, active, problems-based, and collaborative learning pedagogies. Graduate students practice and critique lab lectures, become familiar with the scholarship of teaching and learning, gain knowledge in use of technology in teaching for such things as Blackboard, v-casting course content, and recording and editing multimedia enhancements to the curricula.  The efforts of these Graduate students are harnessed to enhance the course content in Claflin's Departments of Biology and Chemistry. For a look at this novel syllabus click here.

One of the final products of Teaching & Leadership is a Teaching/Leadership Portfolio. These can be indispensable in finding a job in industry or academia. Click here for details on compiling a Teaching Portfolio.

The Graduate Teaching Assistant Training Program at Claflin. Dr. Panasik served for three years in the Teaching & Learning Consortium at the Pennsylvania State University. This entity, created by Penn State's former provost, led a university wide analysis of Penn State's best teaching practices. Many of these recommendations have been incorporated into Claflin University's Masters Program in Biotechnology. To see features of the TA training program click here.

My teaching philosophy



Literature on teaching pedagogy
scholars of teaching and learning (e.g., Ernest Boyer, Jody Nyquist,
Lee Schulman, Pat Hutchins)

Useful links for TAs