The responsibility we bear as educators of the next generation of scientists and science-literate citizens is a collective responsibility of the College of Science, and not the individual burden of each faculty member.  The College and University are committed to helping you develop and maintain the best courses and educational situations for our students.  

Center for Teaching Excellence

Perhaps more than any other source, the Center for Teaching Excellence website can help you find the resources you need to develop and improve as a teacher.  Whether you are new to Mason, new to teaching, or an old hand just trying to keep up with today's technology, an excellent place to start is the New Faculty webpage at CTE, but every area of the site is loaded with helpful information, whether it is

• Getting Started
• Course Design (or re-Design)
• Teaching Large Classes
• Active & Collaborative Learning

there is help at CTE. 

Helping You Help Students

Helping all students is a priority at Mason and the College of Science.  Whether it is the Office of Diversity Programs and Services or the Office of Disability Services, there are resources to help.  The first place to turn is the guide at the CTE Student Support Page, with links to things as diverse as the Copyright Resources Office, the Student Health Services, University Life, the University Writing Center, Center for Field Studies.

University Libraries

The University Libraries is the place to go for help with preparing your course materials, but it can also provide powerful resources to help your students in their coursework.  

• Library Catalogs.  The Mason Library Catalog, as well as collaborating collections such as VIVA and WRLC.
• Research Databases.  Want to find articles on a given subject?  The University maintains subscriptions to many databases
• E-Journals.  OK, you know which journal you want to look at. Come here to get to it quickly.
• InfoGuides.  Subject specific help written and collated for you by real librarians.  While there are info guides developed for research areas, the library staff can customize InfoGuides for your classes as well. (See BIOL420 for an undergrad course site or BIOS702 for a grad course) There is even one to help you understand and work with the library on-line system itself.
• Research Portals. University Libraries has embarked on an ambitious program to develop discipline-specific research portals.