What is Compass?

The Compass Project, a new initiative at UC Berkeley, is a program that supports diversity in the physical sciences by bringing together undergraduate and graduate students through exceptional teaching and learning experiences. For the undergraduates, the main focus of Compass is an intensive one-week summer program for incoming freshmen (with an emphasis on women and minorities), as well as continued mentorship and support throughout their college careers. For the graduate students, Compass provides a platform for discussing issues related to physics education, and a unique opportunity to advance their teaching skills.

What does Compass do for undergrads?

By cultivating students’ interest in science and supporting them through their college years, Compass works to increase the health, diversity and competitiveness of the physical sciences at Berkeley. Compass achieves these goals via a summer program, a mentoring program, and a research program.

The Summer Program

The summer program, the cornerstone of the Compass Project, is an intensive, one-week educational experience that brings together 15 to 20 incoming freshmen and 6 to 8 graduate student instructors to study topics in physics, mathematics, and problem solving unified by a central physical question.

The emphasis of our program is group work and developing learning skills. At the same time, it serves to ease students into Berkeley and life as an undergraduate student. The Compass classrooms are interactive based, rather than downloading information to the students. Teachers guide students by introducing broad problems which incoporates both high school physics materials and advanced undergraduate concepts. Additionally, the problem solving portion of the program gives students an insight into their own learning process and makes them more effective collaborators and communicators.

During the program, the Compass students spend the majority of their time together. They live in the same dormitory, share meals, and work together on problem sets. In addition to coursework, Compass also provides a wide-ranging set of activities that include guest lectures, trips to laboratories, observatories and science museums, hikes, sports and movie nights.

The Mentorship Program

The relationships formed during the summer program extend far beyond its completion. Throughout the year, Compass students meet one-on-one with graduate student mentors to discuss whatever might be on their minds: classes, schedules, study habits, research opportunities, or just life in general. Many of the issues faced by undergraduates cause stress and frustration and can lead promising physical science majors to abandon the physical sciences entirely. Addressing these issues early will help the Compass students remain confident and achieve success in the physical sciences.

The Research Program

Another important component of Compass is an undergraduate research program that exposes students to current research and helps them engage and participate in research themselves. The first step in this program is a new lecture series aimed at an undergraduate audience and given by faculty members. The lecture series introduces students to interesting research opportunities and encourages them to approach professors for participation in their research by creating an informal environment for interaction between students and faculty. Furthermore, Compass is directly assisting students in finding research positions by developing relationships with faculty members, research scientists, and institutions that provide such opportunities.

The Academic Program

Finally, Compass also provides several services designed to help its students succeed academically. These services include weekly office hours staffed by Compass grad students and interested physics upperclassmen, lunches that bring together Compass students and the professors teaching their classes, and a course to improve Compass students’ problem solving abilities.

What does Compass do for graduate students?

In addition to its role in supporting undergraduates, Compass also gives graduate students a unique opportunity to transcend routine lecturing and develop a more sophisticated approach to teaching, an opportunity rarely possible in an environment where graduate student instructors operate under predefined curricula.

A large part of the Compass experience for graduate students takes place in the months leading up to the summer program, and consists of intense weekly discussions, teaching practice, and group work on every detail of the curriculum. Compass opens the door to innovative teaching by putting graduate students in full control: they are solely responsible for designing a syllabus, exploring a variety of instructional methods, and taking on the responsibility of leading undergraduates as they construct their knowledge. By connecting novice teachers to their more experienced peers, participation in Compass leads graduate students to a deep understanding of the many facets of teaching, to insightful explanations for a multitude of topics, and perhaps most importantly, to innovation. The summer program is a vehicle that can take graduate students from being regular lecturers to fantastic teachers.

Ultimately, it is the work done for the summer program that brings new graduate students into Compass and allows them to make the goals of Compass their own. This flow of graduate students also provides for the long-term continuity of the program—as new graduate students join Compass, they can take over the leadership positions held by the previous group of graduate students.

During the academic year, Compass continues to serve graduate students by maintaining a forum to discuss issues associated with teaching and by assisting Compass teachers in the development of their personal teaching philosophies and teaching portfolios.

 

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