The Physical Sciences Faculty in Inclusive Teaching (PS FIT) Fellows Program provides a facilitated community to support faculty in making evidence-based, sustainable, and iterative changes in their courses, creating more inclusive and effective classes, fostering a sense of community, reducing equity gaps, and ultimately working to become change agents within their departments.
The PS FIT Fellows Program is a partnership between the Division of Physical Sciences and the Center for Education Innovation and Learning in the Sciences (CEILS), with support from the Faculty Forward Initiative at UCLA’s Office for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion.
The PS FIT Fellows program award $1000 in funds to qualifying faculty who take the time to make their courses more effective, inclusive and equitable. It is an opportunity to be proactive in planning and designing a course and to do so with a supportive group of instructors and facilitators.
Physical Sciences Faculty (senate and non-senate) who will be teaching in Spring or Fall 2025 and want space and time to discuss ideas with peers.
We ask participants to start by attending the CEILS Annual Faculty Workshop, a Preparing to Teach workshop, or an equivalent. This helps all fellows start at a similar place in terms of awareness and approaches around more effective and inclusive teaching.
Fellows are then asked to engage in five 2-hour lunches to discuss inclusive teaching approaches and determine which they want to adapt and implement for their own courses; they also survey students, engage in peer observations, and/or assess implementation in other ways to reflect and iterate on these approaches.
|
PS FIT Fellows are supported to… |
Receive a $1000 stipend for completing the following 6 tasks: |
|
Engage in learning community with peers… |
[1] Meet other fellows and get introduced to topics at CEILS Preparing to Teach in Spring Workshop Mar. 16, 3-5pm (on Zoom). Email shaked@ceils.ucla.edu if you can’t join or already did the CEILS Faculty Workshop. |
|
[2] Discuss with peers ideas and experiences about evidence-based inclusive teaching approaches in five two-hour lunch meetings (Wks 2, 3, 5, 8, and 10), including peer observations. |
|
|
…to thoughtfully make evidence-based, sustainable, and iterative changes toward creating more inclusive and effective courses… |
[3] Learn about, reflect on and integrate more inclusive teaching practices between lunch sessions, including reviewing and revising syllabus to reflect a more equitable environment. [4] Collect data (i.e. get observed using a published protocol and based on what you want to focus on, and student surveys/assessments) to reflect on ways you want to continue iterating to make your course more inclusive and effective. [5] Integrate at least one new active learning technique, informed by the data collected. Get observed again to provide feedback around use of this technique. |
|
…Reflecting on how to continue work toward a more inclusive teaching culture. |
[6] At the last lunch, determine what your next steps will be to work toward your continued development as an educator and working with departmental peers toward a more inclusive teaching culture. |
Spring 2025 PS Fit Cohort
| Name | Department | Focus Course |
| Sandra Batista | Computer Science | CS 33 |
| Sarah Burnett | Mathematics |
PIC 40A
|
| Justin Caram | Chemistry and Biochemistry | Chem 20A |
| Dory DeWeese | Chemistry and Biochemistry |
Chem 14AE
|
| Yue Dong | Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences |
AOS 200B
|
| Thomas Maierhofer | Statistics | Stats 20 |
| Stefan Petrovic | Chemistry and Biochemistry |
Chem 153B
|
| Joshua Sparks | Statistics |
Stats 13
|
| Michael Tsiang | Statistics |
Stats 167
|
Fall 2024 PS Fit Cohort
| Name | Department | Focus Course |
| Janine Baijnath-Rodino | Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences | AOS 181 |
| Noah Garrison | Institute of the Environment and Sustainability | ENV 140 |
| Abby Kavner | Chemistry and Biochemistry | CHEM 20A |
| Matthew Nava | Chemistry and Biochemistry | CHEM 176 and 172 |
| Franklin Ow | Chemistry and Biochemistry | CHEM 30B |
| Eric Wu | Chemistry and Biochemistry | CHEM 20B and 110A |
| Marcus Roper | Mathematics | MATH 33B |
| Casey Johnson | Mathematics | MATH 1 |
| Danielle Schmitt | Chemistry and Biochemistry | CHEM 153C |
| Ryan Lannan | Chemistry and Biochemistry | CHEM 153A |
| Amy Mainzer | Earth, Planetary, and Space Sciences | EPSS 9 |
| Oscar Leong | Statistics | STAT 231B and 100C |
| Randa Reslan | Chemistry and Biochemistry | CHEM 17 and 20A |