Gateway Science Workshop

Introduction

The Gateway Science Workshop (GSW) is a peer-led program designed to enhance students' learning as they successfully complete course sequences in chemistry, organic chemistry, biology, math, physics, and engineering.

Workshops are offered for:

  • Biology 215, 216, 217, 218
  • Chemistry 101, 102, 103
  • Chemistry 210-1, 210-2, 210-3 (Organic Chemistry)
  • Engineering Analysis 1, 2, 3, 4
  • Math 212, 213, 214, 220, 224, 230
  • Physics 130 and Physics 135

GSW provides a student-friendly environment where diverse groups of learners can work together to solidify their understanding of course material. Students develop critical thinking skills by attending weekly sessions in groups of 5 to 7. In these sessions, students tackle challenging course-related material led by a peer facilitator who has previously done well in the course and has received training.

Click here for GSW-related research and publications.

Program History

In the mid-1990s, Larry Pinto, a Biology professor at Northwestern, felt compelled to help improve the way his students learned. He saw some of his undergraduate students struggling to get through his introductory course, and he felt that somehow, the traditional learning environments and teaching methods used in the large lecture courses were failing them. To remedy the situation, Pinto teamed up with Northwestern’s Searle Center for Teaching Excellence to try an innovative approach that would engage his students in a more productive learning environment. Inspired by the work of Uri Treisman and the Mathematics Workshop Program at the University of California-Berkeley, the team set forth to pilot a peer-facilitated, small-group learning program in Biology.

The first set of workshops began in 1997 with thirty undergraduate students participating in five workshop groups in Biology. The workshop groups were led by 5 undergraduates who had taken and excelled in the course the previous year.  These students were recruited and trained as the first batch of peer facilitators.  After two years of pilot-testing the program, other academic departments noticed the success of peer-facilitated learning, and the program began to grow. 

Funded by the Andrew Mellon Foundation from 2000 to 2007, the GSW program has received institutional support from the Office of the Provost to further its goal of promoting conceptual learning in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) courses. The program is managed by the Searle Center for Teaching Excellence and collaborates with academic and administrative departments at Northwestern to ensure its continued success.

Now more than a decade later, the GSW program comprises some 600 students each fall, more than 100 peer facilitators, and some 20 courses from five STEM disciplines. 

WHAT IS GSW?

Advanced conceptual workshops associated with the following courses:

Approximately 100 workshops are offered every quarter. The workshops meet at various times during the week. About 500 students participate in the workshop program each fall.

All students enrolled in any of the above course sequences are invited to participate in the workshop program. Please contact workshops@northwestern.edu if interested in participating in any of the listed workshops. Participating students meet once a week for two hours in groups of 5 to 7 students, with an undergraduate facilitator who completed the same course successfully in a previous year.

Students work collaboratively on conceptual, challenging, and interesting problems related to their course material. There is no formal evaluation on student performance in the workshop, though students receive a zero-credit notation on their transcripts for their participation in the program.

WHAT DO YOU DO IN GSW?

  • Meet once a week in small groups of 5 to 7 students
  • Tackle challenging, interesting, conceptual problems that are relevant to course curriculum
  • Meet in groups with undergraduate peer facilitators who excelled in the course in a previous year
  • Participate in program evaluation activities

HOW CAN YOU BENEFIT FROM GSW?

  • Tackle more interesting, intriguing, and authentic questions
  • Develop a better and richer understanding of important concepts
  • Make your study time more effective
  • Retain more knowledge, which helps in both current and later work
  • Meet friends and be a part of a cooperative learning community
  • Learn new ways to answer hard questions
  • Feel better prepared for tests
  • Find out how other students have succeeded
  • Have fun while learning!

HOW TO JOIN GSW?

Registration for all GSW workshops open the first day of each quarter. Students enrolled in any of the classes which offer a workshop will be emailed the information necessary to register through CAESAR during the first week of class each quarter. Registration information is also posted as an announcement on each course Blackboard site. Workshops begin the second week of each academic quarter (excluding summer).

Space is limited. Please register early!

Have questions or want more information? Contact us at workshops@northwestern.edu.

Facilitator Role and Responsibilities

Student facilitators play an essential role in the Gateway Science Workshop program. They commit to the position for one academic year, with the possibility of extending the service period.

Each facilitator is responsible for

  • Preparing for and facilitating his/her assigned group once a week
  • Attending a weekly facilitator meeting in advance of each workshop
  • Participating in SESP 291: Undergraduate Teaching and Mentoring (see Training)
  • Attending a new-facilitator orientation the day before fall quarter begins
  • Assisting in program-management activities as required
  • Participating in program-evaluation activities as required
  • Participating in community-building activities as appropriate

How to Become a Facilitator

The GSW program recruits facilitators every spring. We look for the following qualities in applicants:

  • Solid understanding of subject matter
  • Ability to think critically and learn quickly
  • Strong interest in teaching and a sincere desire to help others
  • Excellent interpersonal skills

The facilitator recruitment procedure is as follows:

  • Potential applicants are invited to apply by completing an initial application.
  • A portion of the applicants are selected to interview based on various criteria.
  • An interview committee meets with the interviewees and makes the final decision.

Students who are interested in becoming a facilitator, but did not receive an invitation, may email us at workshops@northwestern.edu.

All GSW facilitators receive training through two channels:

  • A year-long course focusing on group leadership and pedagogy (SESP 291). Facilitators enroll in the course during the year in which they are facilitating. Students in the course read and reflect on issues of pedagogy, group dynamics, and psychology of learning. They also engage in a group research project exploring a teaching-and-learning question related to GSW, and present their findings at an end-of-year poster fair.
  • Weekly meetings with STEM course faculty. Facilitators meet with faculty once a week, prior to their GSW group meetings, to review problems and concepts on the worksheet for that week.
Northwestern's science, mathematics, and engineering faculty members play a critical role in the GSW program. Faculty who teach GSW courses do the following:

Developing Workshop Problems

Faculty members develop the worksheets that provide content for each GSW session. While there are no rules for writing a good problem, our experience shows that well-received workshop problems usually are

  • Conceptually focused
  • Appropriately challenging
  • Relevant to class material
  • Complex, in that they integrate multiple concepts
  • Conducive to group discussion
  • Applicable to real life
  • "Progressive," starting with basic questions, then gradually moving to challenging conceptual ones

Because our GSW faculty members have busy schedules, we provide support to reduce the amount of time they spend on program responsibilities. For example, we provide a problem bank -- a set of problems that have been used in the past -- along with facilitator and student ratings of each problem.

Facilitator Weekly Training

Faculty members who develop the workshop problems meet once a week with the facilitators to help them gain better understanding of the material. The training session typically follows the workshop model, in which facilitators work together to solve the problems with the faculty member's guidance.

The role of the faculty member in the training session is not to explain specific steps of how to solve a problem. Instead, faculty members provide background information, point out connections between concepts embedded in different questions, and emphasize important skills or knowledge that students should gain from the worksheet.

The faculty member's presence itself is very encouraging and important for the facilitators. Faculty members are asked to attend each session. However, graduate teaching assistants can step in when faculty absences are necessary.

The weekly training sessions typically take 1 to 2 hours and are scheduled based on the availability of both the faculty and the facilitators.

Faculty Feedback

Faculty involvement is an essential element of the GSW program. Therefore, the Searle Center for Teaching Excellence actively solicits the feedback of faculty involved with the program through faculty interviews, advisory board meetings, departmental presentations, and other events.

Data

For secured access to GSW data and other faculty materials, click here.

For more information on the Gateway Science Workshop program, contact Andy French.