Faculty Information

Spring 2023 FCTL Learning Community: Team Based Learning and the Gulf Scholars Program

UCF faculty from across the university (i.e., from every unit on campus) are invited to join FCTL’s newest semester-long Learning Community on the topic of Team Based Learning. This opportunity is funded by the National Academies of Science’s Gulf Research Program through a grant led by Drs. Kristy Lewis (Biology, Sustainable Coastal Systems Cluster) and Jennifer Sandoval (Communication, Sustainable Coastal Systems Cluster).  Primarily facilitated by our curriculum development lead and TBL expert, Andrea Berry from UCF College of Medicine, this learning community will focus on developing faculty skills to create robust Team-Based Learning (TBL) modules for use in a new interdisciplinary course called “The Gulf Uncovered.” While the course is place-based and centered on The Gulf of Mexico, the modules can be from any discipline and expertise as long as it provides critical insight into understanding (and/or addressing) the complicated, large-scale, socio-environmental problems that occur within the Gulf of Mexico coastal region. In other words, faculty can develop modules in their area of expertise, but any case studies or examples used, should be centered on the Gulf of Mexico coastal region. Faculty will provide their completed modules to a repository for use in the Gulf Uncovered course at the end of the Learning Community, but will also be encouraged to use those modules in their own teaching as well. 

The modules developed will cover two weeks of the Gulf Uncovered course, for a total of four class periods, that means faculty will need to develop content for four class periods. We will provide all the necessary background information about TBL and how to implement it during each in-person meeting of the Learning Community.

For more context, here are some examples of module topics that align with the place-based context of the curricula development:

• Impacts of sea level rise on vulnerable coastal communities on the Gulf Coast
• Using nature-based engineering solutions to mitigate storm surge on the Gulf Coast
• Marine ecology of the Gulf of Mexico
• Environmental writing from the Gulf Coast
• Seminole tribe of Florida’s climate adaptation planning process
• The economics of red tide on Florida’s Gulf Coast
• Importance of emergency management plans in the Gulf of Mexico
• Media representations of communities and cultures along Florida’s Gulf Coast
• The history and influence of natural disasters on music in the Gulf Coast

While these are just a few examples, we encourage faculty to be creative and again, we encourage ANY discipline to join this community–this course is truly interdisciplinary in nature. 

The learning community will meet six times from 12:00 – 1:30 pm from January 26th to April 6th,  engaging in TBL practices as both learners and instructors. There will also be reserved times in the Faculty Multimedia Center for the Learning Community cohort to schedule time to create any lectures or videos to support their module. The weekly topics are listed below.

The culmination of the Learning Community will be at the Faculty Summer Conference on May 8 – 11. While the Summer Conference portion of the Learning Community is 100% optional, the cohort will be encouraged to attend to finalize the modules,  present our work, and celebrate with at the end of the Summer Conference with a cohort happy hour.  

Faculty who complete the Spring 2023 Learning Community and submit a module for The Gulf Uncovered course by May 11 will earn a $1000 stipend paid for by the GSP grant. For additional information about the Gulf Scholars program read this press release from UCF Today. 

For more information or if you have any questions about this opportunity, please email gulfScholars@ucf.edu. 
You can submit your application at this link.
CLOSED – NO LONGER ACCEPTING APPLICATIONS