The purpose of this project was to create a series of lessons that incorporate both Biology and Engineering concepts. The three lessons were intended to increase in complexity as the students progress throughout the year. Using PyMol software allowed students to visually represent complex protein structures while introducing and providing an opportunity to practice programming. Each lesson was followed by a worksheet or activity to aid in students' comprehension and application of practice. These lessons were designed to maximize students' time learning to program and using PyMol software while enhancing the current curriculum. Lesson one introduced students to the PyMol software while building and representing the four main structures of proteins. With increased programming knowledge, lesson two focused on modeling the DNA double helix. The final lesson introduced students to evolutionary relationships based on a protein's amino acid sequence. / text

This paper will outline some of the key parts of the Statistics course offered through the UTeach Summer Master’s Program as taught by Dr. Martha K. Smith. The paper begins with the introduction of the normal probability density function and is proven with calculus techniques and Euclidean geometry. Probability is discussed at great length in Smith’s course and the importance of understanding probability in statistical analysis is demonstrated through a reference to a study on how medical doctors confuse false positives in breast cancer testing. The frequentist perspective is concluded with a proof that the normal probability density function is zero. The shift from traditional to Bayesian inference begins with a brief introduction to the terminology involved, as well as an example with patient testing. The pros and cons of Bayesian inference are discussed and a proof is shown using the normal probability density function in finding a Bayes estimate for µ. It will be argued that a Statistics course moving from traditional to Bayesian analysis, such as that offered by the UTeach Summer Master’s Program and Smith, would supplement the traditional Statistics course offered at most universities. Such a course would be relevant for the mathematics major, mathematics educator, professionals in the medical industry, and individuals seeking to gain insights into how to understand data sets in new ways. / text

The UTeach Observation Protocol (UTOP) is designed to capture what occurs in a classroom. The UTOP was developed for use in the nationally recognized UTeach program (uteach.utexas.edu) and has been validated nationally in the Gates Foundation Measures of Effective Teaching. (http://www.metproject.org/downloads/Preliminary_Findings-Research_Paper.pdf) Currently the UTOP has been used in both science and math classrooms and is being developed for use in English language arts and social studies classrooms as well. This report serves to begin the modification of the UTOP for use in an engineering classroom to evaluate engineering specific content. The UTOP has been described as a lens for reflection on teaching practices and the goal of this report is to help focus that lens more clearly on the engineering classroom. This tool was created for utilization in both educator and administrator roles. Teachers can use the UTOP to self-assess their own teaching practices as well as in observing other teachers and identify classroom best practices. Administrators and other classroom visitors can use the UTOP to understand and evaluate what occurs in a classroom for a multitude of outcomes. The methodology chosen in this report to create the engineering specific examples used real lessons that have been implemented in engineering classrooms and vetted in actual practice. Using both initial lessons from the teachers and their feedback along with language taken from the Next Generation Science Standard Framework and the UTeachEngineering Engineering Design Protocol, the examples were developed to show how to score each indicator on a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 being the lowest and 5 being the highest score, in a secondary engineering classroom. The next steps recommended for this work are to pilot the examples created in this report and test the usefulness of the examples created. This can be accomplished by field-testing it in UTOP training with teachers and modifying the information based on the feedback that they provide. The work described in this paper was made possible by a grant from the National Science Foundation (Award DUE-0831811). / text