Didem VARDAR ULU

After focusing my early academic career on receiving a strong training in multiple STEM disciplines and doing active interdisciplinary bench-side research, I was introduced to Scholarship in Teaching and Learning during the early years of my first faculty position.  My first professional involvement in the field was as one of the 2008-2009 Scholars of the Biology Scholars Research Residency Program where I initiated a study to investigate the relative importance of competency in informal logic versus prior biology/chemistry knowledge in student achievement in an introductory biochemistry course.  Since that time I have been progressively shifting my focus on course design, curriculum development, and STEM education research.   I have a diverse teaching experience from small to large, intro to advance, and majors to non-majors courses at the interface of chemistry and biology that were taken by students from different backgrounds and with different career goals.  I designed and implemented many student-centered, interdisciplinary curricula that utilize novel competency-based assessment strategies both in lecture and laboratory  chemistry courses.  I continue incorporating evidence based effective teaching pedagogies into every course I teach and address the challenges of offering an inclusive, equitable, consistent, and high-quality education, especially in large classes that require partnership with undergraduate and graduate teaching assistants.   ​