2026 CSI Summer Conference: Teach Together

Please drop in for an informal Q & A Session with the Keynote speaker 

We’ve all seen classrooms that are 'friendly.' Students know each other’s names and the atmosphere is pleasant, but there’s a missing spark: that deeper level of academic engagement. It’s the difference between students simply liking each other and actually learning with each other. In this session, we’re going to use Émile Durkheim’s ideas on community and moral regulation to bridge that gap. We’ll look at how to design a classroom where students don't just feel comfortable, but feel essential. We will dive into three specific ways to make a student feel they truly belong: •    Feeling Known: Is their thinking visible to everyone, or are they just a face in the crowd? •    Feeling Valued: Is their reasoning taken seriously by their peers? •    Feeling Desired: Do they know that the community is actually better because they showed up?

I will be facilitating a game I've titled "Cards Against Campus Life," which is a spin on Cards Against Humanity. It will be specific to CSI faculty and staff using realistic campus and workplace scenarios. The game uses humor to respond to the scenarios, the purpose will be to get people talking through difficult or awkward situations, different perspectives, and possible ways to respond in a professional and supportive way.

It is now possible using AI to create web apps for any purpose that you can imagine. You don’t need any coding knowledge, just some imagination and a Google account. During the session, I’ll walk everyone through creating, publishing, and sharing a Web app with students, all while dealing with zero programming code. In the current parlance, this is called vibecoding. It’s very easy and non-technical.

At a recent panel of a state’s most widespread and prominent employers, all three of the participants stated that they would hire no college graduates, or no new hires at all, unless the applicants had relevant and practical generative AI experience. When one of the attendees, an instructor, noted that “you cannot really do that, students will have ethical concerns and will not want to use AI,” the panelists indicated that did not matter, that there were ethical ways to use AI, and they would use them, or would not be employed by those companies.  In light of this conversation, and similar ones throughout the world, the instructional design, education, and workplace communities must facilitate a dialogue with each other and their students about WHEN and HOW to incorporate AI tools into teaching and learning experiences. This discussion must be contextualized with the expectations of the fields into which students will be entering when they leave instructional environments.  Participants will discuss tools and resources,trends in the workplace regarding AI use, and then have the rest of the time for and open discussion about questions and issues raised during the first parts of the presentation.  Artificial intelligence will eventually be used in many fields, even in ways that are currently inconceivable. This session will be a discussion on helping students develop human-centered patterns and perspectives NOW so they can rely on them when they move to the workplace.  AI pervades the world whether or not we want it. It is in a variety of standalone products and is incorporated into previous “AI-free” products. We must acknowledge this reality and incorporate these tools where they are reliably productive. Centering work, school, or lives, on the other hand, on a tool that is relatively transitory and constantly updating means relying on something with variable access, which could drastically degrade in quality, or, worse, be completely shut down.  In order to prepare for a workplace that has the most appropriate and usable tools, learners should practice with the same tools that they will use in the workplace. There will be little use learning on ChatGPT or Grok, for instance, if the student is going to use Claude or Perplexity during work. There is no use, furthermore, in learning exclusively how to use AI tools to search, OR research, when they do not have the capacity to learn how to control for the issues of these technologies. At the same time, there will be little use in learning an AI-free method of doing a task when employers will be looking for workers who know how to use AI.  Instructional designers and educators are responsible for instructing students in the best practices of their fields, how to do things using their own skills, and then how to use technologies such as AI if those technologies have been prominently and solidly integrated into their fields' common practices.  In an ideal, human-centered, AI-optional world, a learner would not use an AI tool to create something or produce something or carry out a task until they have MASTERED that skill. In academic terms, this would be three things, POSSIBLY four:  1. A master’s student  2. A college graduate  3. Someone with equivalent work experience   4. A student in their LAST SEMESTER of undergraduate experience   More pragmatically, students should only use genAI tools in their course to produce something or follow a process until they have DONE THE TASK BY THEMSELVES, until they have learned ENOUGH about the process or product to be able to understand the theory and reasoning behind its existence, its nature.   This connects to the concept put forth by Neil Postman in his book TECHNOPOLY that EVERY TEACHER should be a history teacher; students must learn how to do things manually, and the theories and debates and propositions about the relevant problems, processes, solutions, etc. in the field, before they use any technology, AI or otherwise, to do that task.

Clear directions are one of the simplest ways to support student success, but writing them well takes time, intention, and a strong sense of where students may get stuck. In this session, we will introduce a Goblin.Tools, a simple FREE AI-powered tool that can help instructors turn assignments, activities, and expectations into clearer, more manageable directions.

We will also explore how students can use the tool to break large or confusing tasks into smaller steps, making it especially useful for learners who struggle with executive functioning, time management, or task initiation.
Participants will see practical examples of how Goblin.Tools can be used to revise assignment instructions, scaffold student work, and reduce overwhelm without lowering academic expectations. The session will focus on hands-on, realistic classroom uses and will invite participants to consider where this tool might support clarity, accessibility, and student persistence in their own courses.

New to Dual Credit with CSI? This session covers the essentials—from DualEnroll and student registration to instructor pay and key expectations. Come connect, ask questions, and get set up for a successful start.

The Science Communication Lab (www.sciencecommunicationlab.org) is a non-profit organization that produce high quality short and feature length science documentaries. The films feature the scientists "telling the story" of their discoveries, giving students a window int the process and wonder of science. In 2025, five high school biology teachers from around the country served as ambassadors and developed lesson plans to go with five of the short films. I chose "How to Kill a Superbug," featuring Dr. Paul Turner from Yale University. Dr. Turner studies bacteriophages--viruses that attack bacteria--and how the coevolution of bacteriophages and bacteria can be utilized to combat antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections. In this session, we will watch the short film and participate in several classroom activities to help students understand natural selection, antibiotic resistance, and the concept of evolutionary tradeoffs. The activities are designed for high school and/or undergraduate biology students. I will also give an overview of other Science Communication Lab films and resources.

Three VisChem Activities You Can Use Tomorrow
 
Many chemistry students can successfully solve problems and perform calculations while still struggling to explain what is happening at the molecular level. As instructors, we often see students memorize rules and procedures without developing a strong mental picture of how atoms, molecules, and ions behave during chemical processes.
This workshop introduces the VisChem collection of molecular visualizations and demonstrates how these resources can be used to make the invisible world of chemistry more accessible to students. Through several classroom examples, participants will explore how molecular animations can be paired with prediction, discussion, and guided inquiry activities to address common misconceptions and strengthen conceptual understanding. The session will focus on practical strategies that can be incorporated into existing General Chemistry courses with minimal preparation. Participants will leave with classroom-ready ideas and resources that can help students better connect what they see, what they measure, and what is occurring at the molecular level.

This session will explore how to integrate durable skills, open educational resources, and high-impact practices into lessons. Through shared examples and practical strategies, participants will see how arts instruction can support creativity, communication, collaboration, and critical thinking while making learning more accessible and engaging. Attendees will leave with adaptable ideas for designing student-centered lessons that connect artistic practice with skills students can use beyond the classroom.

Business and Information Systems Dual Credit Update

Small lesson on tariffs, then possibly an example project.

This session will be a roundtable discussion with Spanish dual credit instructors. Participants will share ideas on teaching techniques, collaborate on ways to support and engage students, and hear about recent student travel experiences to Mexico and Puerto Rico.

This engaging session is designed for Instructors that teach Dual Credit Wellness courses.  Together let's ensure high quality education for all students with a focus on Wellness to help them thrive now and into the future. Opportunity for discussion and questions.

Dual credit teaching is a messy middle. You're asked to deliver college rigor to teenagers with jobs, family responsibilities, and uneven preparation. Do problems like inconsistency, readiness, or communication appear in your classroom?

This session introduces a straightforward way of thinking about those problems: see them more clearly through your students' eyes, rephrase them into something you can influence, and sketch one small change you could try together next term.

Bring one real problem from your dual credit course. You'll leave with a clearer picture of what's happening and one concrete, student-facing experiment you're willing to try. No pedagogy 101, no promises to fix the system, just a thoughtful approach to working on the class with the people sitting in it.

Instructors often ask themselves, “Am I doing enough?” Enough to support student learning. Enough to meet course outcomes. Enough to ensure alignment between what is taught, what is assessed, and what students are expected to achieve.   This continuing education session offers a guided tour of the Open Educational Resource (OER) courses for ALLH 100 and ALLH 101, designed to help instructors confidently answer that question. Participants will explore course structure, Student Learning Outcomes (SLOs), and the assessments intentionally built to support and measure those outcomes.   Through this interactive walkthrough, we will: •    Examine the Student Learning Outcomes for ALLH 100 and ALLH 101 •    Review how assignments and assessments are aligned to each outcome •    Identify where rigor, relevance, and student support are embedded in the course design •    Discuss how OER materials enhance access, engagement, and instructional effectiveness •    Reflect on instructional practices and calibration of “enough” in the context of quality and equity   By the end of the session, instructors will leave with a clearer understanding of how alignment drives student success at a college level, greater confidence in their instructional decisions, and practical strategies for evaluating and strengthening their own course design.

In this session, we will review the new updates from the state and discuss what's coming next for CNA programs. 

Join us in the computer lab for a hands-on dive into real-world data.  In this interactive session, participants will learn how to locate and download large datasets, explore essential statistical tools in Google Sheets and Excel, and actively practice analyzing and manipulating data using the platform of their choice.  We will conclude with an engaging demonstration of how Desmos can bring statistics to life through visualization and exploration.  Participants should come prepared with their Google account login (for Google Sheets) or CSI credentials (for Excel) to fully engage in the session activities.

By designing discussion boards with various entry points, the students are given choice in how they engage with the material leading to higher levels of self-disclosure and community.

In an era of tightening budgets, great science teaching doesn’t have to come with a high cost. This collaborative session invites dual credit and high school science instructors to share creative, low-cost labs, activities, and teaching strategies that bring biology—and all science disciplines—to life. Participants will exchange practical ideas, explore resourceful approaches to common challenges, and leave with ready-to-use, budget-friendly tools that maintain rigor without breaking the bank.

All instructors that teach Early College courses for the CSI Agriculture Department are invited to bring questions and ideas to share in a round table session. We will review requirements and outcomes for Agriculture Department courses and share resources and curriculum ideas.

This presentation will discuss how artificial intelligence acted as a partner to adapt open educational resources into an interactive teaching tool to design and build a physical, illuminated brain model paired with a custom control box. Online design tools such as Tinkercad were used to refine and customize 3D components.
Throughout the project, AI tools supported problem-solving, debugging, and design decisions rather than automating the work itself. The emphasis of this session is not on the technical build alone, but on the process of learning with AI and open resources. The project demonstrates how AI can help educators interpret documentation, troubleshoot constraints, and remix open materials, lowering barriers while maintaining transparency and ethical use.
This work serves as an example of open pedagogy in practice: reusable designs, modifiable code, and a learning artifact that can be adapted across disciplines such as psychology, neuroscience, engineering, and instructional design. Participants will leave with practical insights into using AI to scaffold project-based learning, strategies for modeling responsible AI use with students, and ideas for incorporating open, hands-on builds into teaching and learning contexts.

In April 2026, the American Political Science Association hosted a 2-day working meeting on the topic of dual enrollment in the discipline. This session intends to share the ongoing work of that APSA group, engage attendees in Prof Gardner's current work to help co-create a "best practices in faculty liaison dual/credit instructor relationships", and inform attendees on APSA teaching and learning resources like APSA Educate.  

What does it truly mean to serve students in a time of political uncertainty, decreased funding, and growing students needs? Drawing on key insights from the 2026 Alliance for Hispanic Serving Institutions Educators (AHSIE) Conference, this session explores how institutions can move beyond enrollment metrics toward a deeply relational model of servingness. Participants will examine how institutional alignment and sustainable practices can transform classrooms. The session highlights innovative examples including student-led discussions, holistic support systems, and humanizing approaches to academic pursuits. Participants will engage with practical strategies such as integrating community cultural wealth into curriculum, building cross-campus collaboration, and solidarity through co-created practices. This session is designed for educators, administrators, and staff seeking to translate the promise of servingness into meaningful sustainable action.

In this open discussion on assessment, Writing Program Administrator Tony Lothspeich aims to help attendees think through how to develop and refine engaging opportunities for students’ to achieve mastery of course content and outcomes. We’ll explore non-traditional models of composition, like social media content creation, that aim to engage students where their literacy is strongest. Along the way, we’ll consider how an expanded understanding of composition offers stronger opportunities for students to demonstrate their learning in non-traditional, multimedia summative assignments.