Creating Inclusive Learning Environments

Teaching and mentoring are the most rewarding aspects of Anna Skop’s career. The enjoyment that Dr. Skop receive from a student‘s excitement in her classroom or lab is by far the primary reason she sought a career in academics. Her teaching philosophy is simple. Teachers should be facilitators of learning, not conveyors of information. Dr. Skop provides students the freedom to discover things on their own, explore new avenues of research, and to think critically about their work and that of others. The way she teaches science reflects the way she does science.

There are many ways of knowing and means of learning but creating an inclusive learning environment is key to student success regardless of background or ability. One way Dr. Skop creates a positive teaching and learning climate is first getting to know her students and help them understand how she is as well.

In this webinar you will learn the benefit of the arts in science, particularly how scientific art can help create inclusive learning environments in the science classroom. Dr. Skop’s goal is to give a glimpse of how sharing your life story, creativity, and passions can impact not only the success of students, but the public.

Ahna Skop is a Professor in the Department of Genetics and an affiliate faculty member in Life Sciences Communication and the UW-Madison Arts Institute at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She mentors both scientists and art students in her lab, and also serves on the board of the Wisconsin Science Museum, where many of her art-science collaborations are on display. In 2008, she was awarded an honorary doctorate of science from the College of St. Benedicts and was named a Remarkable Women in Science from the AAAS. In 2015, she was honored as a Kavli Fellow from the National Academy of Sciences. In 2018, she was awarded the first ever Inclusive Excellence Award by the ASCB and HHMI. She currently serves as an advisor to the chief diversity officer at the NIH, and is a diversity consultant to the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI). In 2019, she was honored as one of 125 Women in STEM with an AAAS IF/THEN Ambassadorship. In 2020, she published a book with her two talented undergraduates called “Genetic Reflections: A Coloring Book”. Her science and art have been featured by Apple, The Scientist, USA Today, Smithsonian, PBS.org, NPR and Science magazine. She has recently started an online science art home décor store with her family called skopology.com. One of her great hobbies is cooking/baking (including scientific cakes!) and she manages a foodblogs, foodskop.com, and her AAAS IF/THEN funded labculturerecipes.com in her free time.