This session presents preliminary findings about team-teaching and
student learning from our Star Stories research. Star Stories is a study
embedded within an interdisciplinary course combining Storytelling and
Astronomy that uses Design-Thinking* as an instructional framework. We address
data relating to the successes, pitfalls, and benefits of teaching in tandem.
We will also discuss the impact of team instruction on our professional
development and activities and tools developed to enhance students’ curiosity,
engagement, science literacy, and storytelling/communication skills.
We encourage anyone interested in building learning communities
with students and colleagues to attend. We also hope that our interdisciplinary
collaboration may serve as a practical model for encouraging creativity and
curiosity among students and faculty on other campuses.
* Design-Thinking (promoted at the Hasso
Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford University) refers to collaborative
practices that revolve around solving problems, innovating, team-learning.