Teaching Generation ‘Why?’: Helping Students Find Meaning and Purpose in Your Course √ §
Help students discover how your course matters.
Location
Online
Date & Time
September 8, 2025, 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm
Description
More than any previous generation, we hear today’s students asking, "When will I ever use this?" As a group, today’s students tend to be more instrumental in their educational goals, yet they also are increasingly seeking meaning and purpose in their educational experience, and they need our help to find the "why" behind what they're learning. In this interactive session, you'll discover research-backed strategies to help students connect personally with your course content, regardless of your discipline. You'll learn how to frame your content in ways that resonate with students' deeper values and life goals, transform routine assignments into meaningful learning experiences, and create classroom environments where students don't just acquire knowledge—they discover how it matters to their lives and future aspirations. Marykate Conroy (Career Center) will provide an overview of the NACE career readiness competencies and how to help students prepare for their future careers by embedding these competencies into the classroom experience.
Please click “Going Virtually” below to reserve your seat for this
session, and we will send you a Google calendar invitation with a WebEx
link one hour before the session. If you register less than an hour
before the session, you will receive the WebEx link when you register.
Please email fdc@umbc.edu
if you have any questions. If you have registered and find that you can
no longer attend, please kindly release your spot so that others may
attend.
√ Counts toward the ALIT Certificate
§ Counts toward the INNOVATE Certificate
§ Counts toward the INNOVATE Certificate
Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash.
Part of the FDC Diverse Classroom Series
Launched in February 2017!
Sessions in this series are designed to help you capture UMBC’s strengths in diversity to create vibrant learning environments--environments that effectively challenge and support every student. During interactive sessions, faculty and staff colleagues will help you address challenges and explore key questions, for example,
Launched in February 2017!
Sessions in this series are designed to help you capture UMBC’s strengths in diversity to create vibrant learning environments--environments that effectively challenge and support every student. During interactive sessions, faculty and staff colleagues will help you address challenges and explore key questions, for example,
- How can you learn about your classroom audience to better connect with your students and reflect on their learning needs?
- How can you make your classroom more hospitable for all learners?
- How can you handle sensitive discussions in your classroom?
- How can you ensure that students from different academic and social backgrounds and with different physical and cognitive abilities experience classrooms where they are welcomed, challenged, and supported?
- aspire to make their classrooms more inclusive of our diverse student population.
