Center for Education, Innovation, and Learning in the Sciences

CEILS Teaching Celebration
2025-05-29 15:00 - 17:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Hershey Hall Inner Courtyard, 801 Hilgard Ave, Los Angeles, CA, 90095, United States
We’re excited to invite all educators to a fun-filled celebration to honor your dedication and passion for teaching and engagement with CEILS! We are honored that you would share your time with us so please come indulge in an icecream sundae bar with toppings, connect with colleagues, and celebrate the wonderful impact you make every day. Your commitment to teaching inspires us all—let’s make this a memorable event! *vegan options available upon request. Please RSVP to secure your spot today!

RSVP Here!

CEILS Wellness Walks
2025-06-04 11:40 - 12:00, 2025-06-11 11:40 - 12:00 | Hershey Hall Front Courtyard, 612 Charles E Young Dr E, Los Angeles, CA, 90095, United States
Join us for energizing 20-minute walks every Wednesday from 11:40 – 12:00 pm. Whether you stroll the full time, a bit less, or more, this time is for you. You can use this time to connect with CEILS folks about teaching, hold walking meetings with colleagues, or put on your headphones and drift away. We’ll send a calendar invite to the emails we already have in our listserv, but please forward to friends who would love to join! Bring a buddy and come walk with us!
Meet in the Hershey Hall Front Courtyard at 11:35 AM

CEILS Faculty Orientation - Fall 2025
2025-09-11 14:00 - 17:00 | Zoom link emailed to RSVPers
Are you new to UCLA? Are you teaching at UCLA for the first time? Are you teaching a new course or a large-enrollment course for the first time? Do you have questions about effective ways to welcome students into your class on the first day? Are you concerned about your exams being both fair and rigorous? Are you wondering how to effectively work with your TAs?
This orientation is specifically designed for folks teaching their first course in Fall 2025, and anyone teaching their first large-enrollment course. In the last hour, we will be discussing tips for how to work effectively with your TAs and to adapt assignments or assessments if you have less TA support than expected. In addition to having resources around logistics and BruinLearn (Canvas) setup, we’ll also discuss course and grading structure, syllabus design, how to manage student questions and engagement in large classes, and getting ready for the first day of class.
Join us on Thursday, September 11, 2-5 pm on Zoom. RSVP Here by September 10. Once you RSVP, we will send a Zoom link and additional resources.

More info here
RSVP here

2025 CEILS Annual Faculty Workshop - Day 1 of 2
2025-09-18 09:00 - 15:00 | Hershey Hall 158
Join any of all of the sessions Sep. 18 and 19, 9am to 3pm, in Hershey Hall 158.
RSVP here
This year, our annual workshop will focus on supporting you in creatively responding to the changing institutional environment while maintaining your well-being. Our goal is to provide you with resources, concrete strategies, and practices to maximize or maintain student learning.
We invite you to join us and engage in any or all of the experiences described below:

Hear from experts on AI about maintaining academic integrity in assessment
Learn about strategies for designing an inclusive syllabus and creating community on the first day of class, helping your students learn how-to learn, and reimagining your course with reduced TA support.
Get to know folks from the UCLA Disabilities and Computing Program and learn about making your course materials more accessible.
Engage with invited faculty, who will present lightning talks followed by roundtable discussions, each led by one of the invited faculty.

All are welcome to join this community of caring instructors who are excited to talk about teaching! We especially encourage instructors who either are relatively new to college teaching or who have instructional responsibilities in large enrollment gateway courses for science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) majors.
Record your participation in your dossier as evidence of your efforts to improve teaching and as an activity that helps promote equal opportunity and diversity in education. Such efforts in both categories, on behalf of all faculty, are now a recognized component of the promotion and tenure process at UCLA (see APM 210-1, and Appendix 41).
Click to view Faculty Teaching Workshop 2025 Agenda

2025 CEILS Annual Faculty Workshop - Day 2 of 2
2025-09-19 09:00 - 15:00 | Hershey Hall 158

Learning Assistant (LA) Program Faculty Learning Community - pre-quarter meet-up
2025-09-24 12:00 - 13:30 | CA
The Undergraduate Learning Assistants (LA) Program in the Sciences at UCLA is an evidence-based, multidisciplinary instructional strategy, in which undergraduate students who have succeeded in a course receive credit to learn how to help the next group of students succeed in that course. It is specifically geared toward large introductory science, engineering and math courses. LAs thus help facilitate active learning and collaborative instruction in discussion, lab, and/or lecture.
If you have LAs in Fall 2025, this meet-up is designed to support you in discussing and finalizing any plans for LA implementation. In this shifting landscape, this feels like a time when it’s particularly important to check in with and support one another.
If you don’t yet have LAs and you’re interested in meeting instructors who work with them, you’re welcome to join and hear how folks are integrating LAs to create more effective courses.
Email LA Program Director Shanna Shaked at shaked@ucla.edu if interested in joining.

CEILS Journal Club for STEM Education
2025-10-01 14:00 - 15:00 | 1100 Terasaki Life Sciences Building, 1100 Terasaki Life Sciences Building, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, 90095, United States
Paper we will discuss on Oct 1:
Griston, Molly, and Bethany R. Wilcox. “Motivating reflection in problem solving: Homework corrections in upper-division physics courses.” Physical Review Physics Education Research 21.2 (2025): 020113.
About Journal Club:
Are you interested in learning about the latest STEM education research but not sure where to start? Or feeling overwhelmed by the sheer quantity of literature out there and what it means for your teaching? Come to the CEILS journal club!
We will pick key recent papers from the STEM education research literature and provide a one-page summary to facilitate discussion. Our goal is to make it easier for instructors to explore relevant STEM education research literature and reflect on its implications for their courses in community with other instructors.
All UCLA instructors including faculty, graduate students and postdocs are welcome to participate!
RSVP for Journal Club Fall 2025

2025 CEILS Pop-in Party
2025-10-09 12:00 - 15:00 | CEILS Office Hershey Hall 230
Come celebrate our new office space and connect with the team! The Center for Education Innovation and Learning in the Sciences (CEILS) invites you to pop-in and check out our new workspace located in Hershey Hall 230. We are excited to welcome you into our space, share what we have been working on, and offer ways to strengthen and support you and your department.
Enjoy some light refreshments and fun activities including a Goal-Setting Station for the new academic year and an Instructor Collaboration Wall where you can share your thoughts, questions and project ideas related to teaching and learning, and gather insights from your colleagues, sparking new collaborations.
We’d be glad to have you visit and connect with us in person!
RSVP: RSVP for CEILS Pop In Party

2025 CEILS Teaching Table for STEM Classrooms
2025-10-09 15:00 - 16:00 | CEILS Office Hershey Hall 230
Creating a more inclusive classroom for neurodivergent students
About 20-30% of college students are neurodivergent. In this Teaching Tables gathering, we invite you to share your experiences with neurodiversity in and outside the classroom and discuss how we can all better support our neurodivergent students.
Resource: Autism Goes to College Podcast. Episode 42: What professors need to know?
About Teaching Tables:
Teaching Tables is a space for all UCLA instructors to come together each month and share their joys and frustrations of teaching. We will also guide conversation around a selected resource (e.g., article, podcast, short video) on topics related to teaching STEM courses at UCLA, such as getting to know your students in this day and age, making space for everyone in your class, and more. We will explore each session’s resources and topics by tapping into your experiences and those of the community. Whether you’re a seasoned professor or you’ve just started your teaching journey, you’ll find strategies to try in your own classroom and a community to explore them with!
Join us in creating a communal space for faculty, teaching staff, postdocs, and graduate students to discuss, learn, and consider teaching strategies that support themselves and their students in the classroom.
Drop in for one or come for them all, we hope to see you there!
RSVP: RSVP for Teaching Tables Fall 2025

Supporting Neurodivergent Students: Evidence and Strategies for STEM Faculty - Special Event: UCLA Disability Pride Week
2025-10-16 15:00 - 16:00 | Zoom link emailed to RSVPers
Anywhere between 10-30% of college students identify as neurodivergent. Come join us at this Interactive Lecture to learn from Dr. Yasamin Bolourian, Director of Outreach and Dissemination at UCLA Tarjan Center and co-developer of NeuroPREP, a faculty training program on neurodiversity. Dr. Bolourian will share some strategies on how to better support neurodivergent students in our STEM courses.
More about the speaker:
Dr. Yasamin Bolourian is the Director of Outreach and Dissemination at the UCLA Tarjan Center and a research supervisor at the UCLA PEERS® Clinic. Her work focuses on supporting neurodivergent students and adults through inclusive practices, training, and evidence-based strategies that promote access, equity, and success across educational and workplace settings.
RSVP for Supporting Neurodivergent Students In STEM

UCLA Physics & Astronomy Colloquium - "AI & Mathematical Skills (AIMS) to support student success: from research to implementation in STEM courses at UCLA", by Yifan Lu, Shanna Shaked, K. Supriya
2025-10-30 16:00 - 17:00 | 430 Portola Plz, Physics and Astronomy Building & Knudsen Hall, Los Angeles, CA 90095, 430 Portola Plz, Physics and Astronomy Building & Knudsen Hall, Los Angeles, CA, 90095, United States
How can we support students in reviewing or learning the necessary math to succeed in college STEM courses, such as introductory physics? We will review some relatively simple promising interventions and our education research study supporting their effectiveness. Inequities in student access to trigonometry and calculus are often associated with racial and socioeconomic privilege, and often influence introductory physics course performance. To mitigate these disparities in student preparedness, we developed a two-pronged intervention consisting of (1) incentivized supplemental math assignments and (2) AI-generated learning support tools in the form of optional hints embedded in the physics homework assignments. For the supplemental math assignments, the extra credit was scaled to make it worth more points for students with lower exam scores, thereby creating even greater value for students who might benefit most from the assignments. AI-generated hints were integrated into the homework assignments, thereby reducing or eliminating the cost to the student, in terms of time, energy, and social barriers or fear of judgment. Our findings indicate that both these interventions are associated with increased exam scores; in particular, the scaled extra credit reduced disparities in completion of supplemental math assignments. These interventions are therefore very promising for creating more equitable undergraduate quantitative courses.Thanks to funding from UCLA’s Teaching and Learning Center, we will then discuss our vision for implementing these interventions in STEM undergraduate courses at UCLA more broadly.
Shaked + Supriya (UCLA Center for Education Innovation and Learning in the Sciences) and Lu (UCLA Physics & Astronomy Dept.)
Refreshments at 3:30 p.m. on the PAB Patio. Undergraduates Welcome!

CEILS Journal Club for STEM Education
2025-11-05 14:00 - 15:00 | 1100 Terasaki Life Sciences Building, 1100 Terasaki Life Sciences Building, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, 90095, United States
Paper we will discuss on Nov 5:
Costello, Robin A., et al. “Highlighting Counterstereotypical Scientists in Undergraduate Life Science Courses.” CBE—Life Sciences Education 24.2 (2025): es1.
About Journal Club:
Are you interested in learning about the latest STEM education research but not sure where to start? Or feeling overwhelmed by the sheer quantity of literature out there and what it means for your teaching? Come to the CEILS journal club!
We will pick key recent papers from the STEM education research literature and provide a one-page summary to facilitate discussion. Our goal is to make it easier for instructors to explore relevant STEM education research literature and reflect on its implications for their courses in community with other instructors.
All UCLA instructors including faculty, graduate students and postdocs are welcome to participate!
RSVP for Journal Club Fall 2025

2025 CEILS Teaching Table for STEM Classrooms
2025-11-13 12:30 - 13:30 | CEILS Office Hershey Hall 230
Cultivating attention amidst distraction
Laptops and cell phone use is extremely common in college classrooms now and there are growing concerns about students’ attention spans. What are some ways we might be able to help our students pay attention in the classroom? We invite you to share strategies that you have used to cultivate attention and learn from each other.
Resource: Resilient Pedagogy podcast. Episode: Distracted with James Lang
About Teaching Tables
Teaching Tables is a space for all UCLA instructors to come together each month and share their joys and frustrations of teaching. We will also guide conversation around a selected resource (e.g., article, podcast, short video) on topics related to teaching STEM courses at UCLA, such as getting to know your students in this day and age, making space for everyone in your class, and more. We will explore each session’s resources and topics by tapping into your experiences and those of the community. Whether you’re a seasoned professor or you’ve just started your teaching journey, you’ll find strategies to try in your own classroom and a community to explore them with!
Join us in creating a communal space for faculty, teaching staff, postdocs, and graduate students to discuss, learn, and consider teaching strategies that support themselves and their students in the classroom.
Drop in for one or come for them all, we hope to see you there!
RSVP for Teaching Tables Fall 2025

2025 CEILS Journal Club
2025-12-03 14:00 - 15:00 | Terasaki Rm 1100 | Zoom option available
Paper we will discuss on Dec 3:
Yuriev, Elizabeth, et al. “Integrating Generative AI in Chemistry Education: Enhancing Career-Ready Writing Skills in Pharmaceutical Science.” Journal of Chemical Education 102.5 (2025): 1991-2001.
CEILS Journal Club for STEM Education
About Journal Club: Are you interested in learning about the latest STEM education research but not sure where to start? Or feeling overwhelmed by the sheer quantity of literature out there and what it means for your teaching? Come to the CEILS journal club!
We will pick key recent papers from the STEM education research literature and provide a one-page summary to facilitate discussion. Our goal is to make it easier for instructors to explore relevant STEM education research literature and reflect on its implications for their courses in community with other instructors.
All UCLA instructors including faculty, graduate students and postdocs are welcome to participate!
RSVP for Journal Club Fall 2025

2025 CEILS Teaching Table for STEM Classrooms
2025-12-11 12:30 - 13:30 | CEILS Office Hershey Hall 230
Reflecting Together on the Fall Quarter
Come celebrate the end of the quarter with us and share your wins as well as the challenges you experienced in the Fall quarter.
About Teaching Tables
Teaching Tables is a space for all UCLA instructors to come together each month and share their joys and frustrations of teaching. We will also guide conversation around a selected resource (e.g., article, podcast, short video) on topics related to teaching STEM courses at UCLA, such as getting to know your students in this day and age, making space for everyone in your class, and more. We will explore each session’s resources and topics by tapping into your experiences and those of the community. Whether you’re a seasoned professor or you’ve just started your teaching journey, you’ll find strategies to try in your own classroom and a community to explore them with!
Join us in creating a communal space for faculty, teaching staff, postdocs, and graduate students to discuss, learn, and consider teaching strategies that support themselves and their students in the classroom.
Drop in for one or come for them all, we hope to see you there!
RSVP for Teaching Tables Fall 2025

CEILS Journal Club for STEM Education
2026-01-21 14:00 - 15:00 | Hershey Hall 168
Paper we will discuss on Jan 21:
Chrin, S. R., & Nardo, J. E. “(Dis) Ability and Accommodation: Exploring the Accessibility of General and Organic Chemistry Course Designs”. Journal of Chemical Education, 102.6 (2025), 2305-2315. (Dr. Jocelyn Nardo, the TLC Scholarly Seminar Speaker in the Winter quarter, is a co-author on this paper)
About Journal Club:
Are you interested in learning about the latest STEM education research but not sure where to start? Or feeling overwhelmed by the sheer quantity of literature out there and what it means for your teaching? Come to the CEILS journal club!
We will pick key recent papers from the STEM education research literature and provide a one-page summary to facilitate discussion. Our goal is to make it easier for instructors to explore relevant STEM education research literature and reflect on its implications for their courses in community with other instructors.
All UCLA instructors including faculty, graduate students and postdocs are welcome to participate!
RSVP for Journal Club Winter 2026

CEILS Journal Club for STEM Education
2026-02-04 14:00 - 15:00 | Hershey Hall Salon
Feb 4 – Teaching-as-Research Lightning Talks:
Through the CIRTL program, graduate students and postdocs learn how to apply their research skills to their classrooms. At the February journal club meeting, we are excited to feature five talks by our CIRTL Scholars on their completed Teaching-as-Research projects. These talks will be followed by a reception.

Caitlyn Fick, Chemistry & Biochemistry: Enhancing Student Confidence and Engagement in Chemistry Through Real World Topics and Student Choice in Writing
Nicholas Hu, Mathematics: Critical writing and reflection in undergraduate mathematics courses
Pamala N. Dayley, Psychology: Effects of Portfolio Grading on Students’ Growth Mindset and Academic Satisfaction
YongKyung Oh, DGSOM: Shifting Opinions about Generative AI: How An Interactive Session Informs Perceptions about its use in Research and Education
Ivy Kwok, Civil & Environmental Engineering “Conference Attendance: A Vehicle to Enhance Undergraduate Students’ Learning of Interdisciplinary Environmental Topics”

About Journal Club:
The CEILS Journal Club is a collaborative space for faculty, graduate students, and postdoctoral researchers to discuss the latest STEM education research and its implications for our classrooms.
Our goal is to make it easy for you to keep up with recent findings while exploring how this research can translate into your teaching. We encourage you to join and share your own perspectives as an instructor in this space. Each meeting stands alone and we welcome new participants!
All UCLA instructors including faculty, graduate students and postdocs are welcome to participate!
RSVP for Journal Club Winter 2026

CEILS Journal Club for STEM Education
2026-03-04 14:00 - 15:00 | Terasaki Life Sciences 5100
Paper we will discuss on Mar 4:
Goodwin, E. C., Shapiro, C., Freise, A. C., Toven-Lindsey, B., & Moberg Parker, J. Synthesizing Research Narratives to Reveal the Big Picture: a CREATE (S) Intervention Modified for Journal Club Improves Undergraduate Science Literacy. Journal of microbiology & biology education, 24.2 (2023): e00055-23.
About Journal Club:
The CEILS Journal Club is a collaborative space for faculty, graduate students, and postdoctoral students to learn and discuss breakthrough STEM education research and its implications in your classroom.
Every session features a carefully selected article chosen for its relevance to teaching in STEM. This is paired with a one page summary on the article to facilitate discussion.
We are making it easy to keep up with recent findings while exploring how this research can translate into your course. We encourage you to join and share your own perspective as an instructor in this space. Each meeting stands alone and welcomes new participants
RSVP for Journal Club Winter 2026

Mid Day Pause
2026-03-09 12:00 - 14:00 | Hershey Hall 230
Step out of the rush and return to your day renewed. We invite you to take a quick pause in the middle of your day and join CEILS in taking time to reflect, connect and unwind. This break will provide an opportunity to engage in mental rest and gentle connection with your colleagues. Coffee, tea and snacks provided.

Preparing to Teach
2026-03-16 15:00 - 17:00 | Zoom link emailed to RSVPers
Are you teaching a course for the first time? Or are you seeking more guidance on what to do to set up your class? Do you have questions about effective ways to welcome students into your class on the first day? Are you concerned about your exams being both fair and rigorous? Are you wondering how to effectively work with your TAs, with possibly reduced TA support?
We invite instructors to join this Preparing to Teach workshop designed to help you prepare to teach and adapt your course, whether you are new to teaching or new to teaching a large enrollment course. Be prepared to discuss course and grading structure, syllabus design, managing student questions, engagement in a large class, getting ready for the first day of class, and strategies for working effectively with TAs. This workshop provides practical frameworks and institutional guidance to help you feel confident in the classroom.
RSVP here.

CEILS Journal Club for STEM Education
2026-04-01 14:00 - 15:00 | CA
Paper we will discuss on April 1:

April 1, 2026 (In-Person & Zoom) Salvatore, S., White, C., & Podowitz-Thomas,
S. (2024). “Not a cookie cutter situation”: how neurodivergent students
experience group work in their STEM courses.International Journal of STEM
Education, 11(1), 47.

About Journal Club:
The CEILS Journal Club is a collaborative space for faculty, graduate students, and postdoctoral students to learn and discuss breakthrough STEM education research and its implications in your classroom.
Every session features a carefully selected article chosen for its relevance to teaching in STEM. This is paired with a one page summary on the article to facilitate discussion. We are making it easy to keep up with recent findings while exploring how this research can translate into your course. We encourage you to join and share your own perspective as an instructor in this space. Each meeting stands alone and welcomes new participants

Signup:

Registration Link

Pedagogical Essentials: Supporting your students in learning how to study for your course
2026-04-17 10:00 - 23:15 | CA
Reimagine how students learn in your course. This interactive workshop examines challenges students face when studying for STEM courses and highlights actionable ways faculty can better support students in developing and sustaining stronger learning habits. Drawing on research-informed practices, we will explore practical strategies that strengthen metacognition, enhance exam performance, and promote durable understanding—without sacrificing essential content. Participants will leave energized and equipped with concrete, ready-to-implement tools to help their students develop stronger, more effective learning habits.
(in person)
RSVP here

Journal Club
2026-05-06 14:00 - 15:00 | Terasaki Life Sciences 5100
Paper we will discuss on May 6th:

De Jesus, M et al. (2026). Equitable Group Work in Undergraduate Biology Courses: Leveraging a Complex Instruction Framework to Identify Pedagogical Strategies, CBE—Life Sciences Education, Vol. 25, No. 2.

About Journal Club:
The CEILS Journal Club is a collaborative space for faculty, graduate students, and postdoctoral students to learn and discuss breakthrough STEM education research and its implications in your classroom.
Every session features a carefully selected article chosen for its relevance to teaching in STEM. This is paired with a one page summary on the article to facilitate discussion. We are making it easy to keep up with recent findings while exploring how this research can translate into your course. We encourage you to join and share your own perspective as an instructor in this space. Each meeting stands alone and welcomes new participants

Join us for May journal club where you will share and discuss common challenges in implementing groupwork and ways to mitigate those challenges.

Signup:

Registration Link
Zoom link for those not able to come in person

Soundbath: A CEILS-Cultural North Star Collaboration
2026-05-07 12:00 - 13:00 | Hershey Hall 158
CEILS is partnering with DGSOM’s Cultural North Star to host a sound bath workshop on Thursday, May 7, 2026 from 12 – 1 pm in Hershey Hall Salon (Room 158). RSVP here.
This professional development session offers instructors in the Life sciences, Physical Sciences, and Health professions a dedicated space for reflection and renewal. As the demands of teaching, research, and service continue to intensify, this session provides an opportunity to pause, reset, and reconnect with practices that can sustain attention, presence, and balance—both in and beyond academic work. Through guided, sound-based practices, participants will engage in an experiential approach to restore focus and supporting overall well-being.

Pedagogical Essentials: Writing better multiple choice questions
2026-05-11 13:00 - 14:15 | CA
Well-designed multiple-choice questions can do far more than test factual recall; they can reveal student thinking, diagnose misconceptions, and assess higher-order problem-solving skills. Yet writing strong questions is challenging. This interactive workshop is designed for STEM faculty who want to create more effective multiple choice questions that provide students and instructors with deeper assessment of learning. Participants will explore research-based principles for constructing clear, rigorous, and fair multiple-choice questions that align with learning outcomes. We will examine how to write plausible distractors based on common student errors, design questions that assess conceptual understanding rather than rote memorization, and ensure that items are more inclusive and free from unnecessary barriers. We will also discuss strategies for using student response data to refine questions over time and improve exam reliability and discrimination.
(in person, with Zoom option)
RSVP here

2nd Annual Teaching Celebration
2026-05-27 15:00 - 16:30 | CA
Location: Hershey Hall Inner Courtyard

We’re excited to invite all educators to our annual celebration of teaching to honor your dedication, passion, and engagement with CEILS this year! This year we have invited Creamy Boys Ice Cream to create an ice cream experience where you can mix in real-fruit and other delicious flavors! They will help us create fun memories and connect with each other as we celebrate and close the quarter. RSVP today to join the celebration on May 27th 3:00 – 4:30 pm.

RSVP Link: CEILS Teaching Day Celebration RSVP 2026

Journal Club
2026-06-03 14:00 - 15:00 | CA
Paper we will discuss on June 3rd:
June 3, 2026 (In-Person & Zoom) Nørgård, R. T., Toft-Nielsen, C., & Whitton, N. (2017). Playful learning in higher education: Developing a signature pedagogy. International Journal of Play, 6(3), 272-282.

About Journal Club:

The CEILS Journal Club is a collaborative space for faculty, graduate students, and postdoctoral students to learn and discuss breakthrough STEM education research and its implications in your classroom.
Every session features a carefully selected article chosen for its relevance to teaching in STEM. This is paired with a one page summary on the article to facilitate discussion. We are making it easy to keep up with recent findings while exploring how this research can translate into your course. We encourage you to join and share your own perspective as an instructor in this space. Each meeting stands alone and welcomes new participants

Signup:

Registration Link

Pedagogical Essentials: Encouraging Student Engagement Through Playful Approaches to Teaching workshops
2026-06-09 14:00 - 15:30 | CA
Are you curious about using play or playfulness in your teaching? Incorporating playfulness can encourage your students to actively engage using the intrinsic motivation baked into the fun of playing.
But how to start? In this workshop we will go through the process of creating a playful activity that starts with your student learning outcomes or a specific topic. We will briefly discuss a framework for approaching activity design and then we will dive right into a collaborative space of brainstorming and creation while exploring what implementing playfulness in the classroom could look like. Every classroom and instructor is different though so you will also have time to playfully create an activity or approach to use that is specific to your teaching.
Roll the dice and come join us to learn about playfulness in the classroom!
RSVP Now!

UCLA Summer Institute On Evidence-Based Teaching
2026-06-13 - 2026-06-16 | CA
Co-facilitated by the TLC and the Center for Education Innovation and Learning in the Sciences (CEILS), the Summer Institute offers training on effective evidence-based teaching strategies and active learning. This four-day learning opportunity includes facilitated workshop sessions where instructors will practice innovative instructional approaches to increase student engagement and learning in your classroom. Instructors will work together in small groups to design a “teachable tidbit,” a brief course module with engaging activities and assessments to meet a course’s learning objectives.
Eligible instructors selected to participate will receive $500, payable to a research or professional development fund, and all participants will earn a certificate of completion. A record of participation can be included in instructors’ dossiers as evidence of efforts to improve teaching, as well as an activity that promotes inclusive excellence in education. Efforts in this area are recognized as a component of the promotion and tenure process at UCLA (see APM 210-1).
The Summer Institute is UCLA’s iteration of the National Academies Summer Institute, started at the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 2004. Since coming to campus in 2016, the program has expanded beyond STEM disciplines to include social sciences and humanities instructors, creating an interdisciplinary setting for advancing teaching excellence.
Go to the TLC Page to learn more: UCLA Summer Institute for Impactful Teaching – Center for Education, Innovation, and Learning in the Sciences
