Events
The Trefny Center offers a range of programming around topics in teaching and learning. Please see below for a list of our upcoming workshops, learning communities, and other gatherings!
UPCOMING EVENTS
Participants will be asked to complete pre-work prior to the first session, as well as one brief reading and one brief task in preparation for each day’s session. Coffee/tea and lunch will be provided. We will offer plenty of breaks and opportunities for individual and group work time throughout the sessions.
This Teaching and Learning Lab has been attended by over 55 faculty so far, is averaging 4.8/5 in faculty satisfaction!
Teaching and Learning Lab, Human-Centered AI
August 18-19, 2026 | 9:00 AM-3:00 PM | Green Center 224
Interested in utilizing generative AI to enhance your teaching in ways that center human relationships, ethics, creativity, and critical thinking? Join us for our Trefny Teaching and Learning Lab: Human-Centered AI, a two-day immersive learning intensive designed to help you thoughtfully and intentionally integrate AI into your teaching. Through experiential learning activities, structured experimentation, and dedicated work time, this intensive will equip you with strategies for streamlining your course design process, adding variety to your lesson plans, and boosting student engagement in ways that center human connection and critical inquiry. You’ll also have the opportunity to talk with Mines students about their experiences and perspectives on learning with AI. Participants will leave the intensive with a newly-refreshed, learner-centered course design, ready-to-use AI-powered activities, and a co-created AI Lab Manual packed with tips, prompts, activity ideas, and more. Come explore, build, and shape the future of teaching at Mines …and meet some fellow humans!
Qualifying participants will receive professional development funds for their completion of the workshop.
Open to Mines faculty, students, and staff
Pizza will be served!
How Using AI Impacts Learning: What We Know, What We Don’t, and What We Can Do About It
Thursday, September 17, 2026 | 2:30-3:30 PM | East Building 210
What does the research actually say about generative AI’s impact on learning? Whether you are a student, faculty, or staff member at Mines, we invite you to join us for this interactive session to explore how generative AI use is reshaping cognitive development, skill retention, as well as classroom practices, relationships, and environments. In addition to providing an overview of recent research on genAI and learning, this session will structure time for community conversation, and offer new strategies for approaching AI in teaching and learning contexts. Ultimately, the session will help participants develop the critical discernment to know when AI should be set aside to preserve productive struggle and academic integrity, and when it might be incorporated to develop AI literacy or expand our thinking in new directions.
Open to Mines faculty, students, and staff
“How I Actually Use AI:” A Student-Led Q&A Session Featuring Live Demos
Wednesday, September 23, 2026 |10:00-11:00 AM |Virtual via Zoom
How are Mines students actually integrating AI into their classroom learning? Join us for this panel of live demos, where a group of Mines students will walk us through real use cases describing how they use generative AI to support their learning process. The first half of the session will feature live demo screen-shares, followed by an opportunity to ask students questions about their perspectives and experiences. Bring your curiosity and questions to this virtual special event!
Open to Mines faculty
Teaching Talks: Integrating AI Literacy into the Core Curriculum
Tuesday, October 6 | 11:15 AM-12:30 PM | Student Center Ballroom D/E
How are Mines instructors across the core curriculum integrating AI literacy into their classrooms? During this session, we will provide a brief overview of AI@Mines Literacy Framework, and you will hear about efforts to integrate responsible use into Mines classrooms, with examples such as verifying genAI outputs in chemistry lab workflows, researching the environmental impacts of AI, training an original linear regression algorithm, and more. Join us to chat with faculty colleagues and brainstorm ways you can help your students develop responsible uses of this technology. Lunch will be available at 11:15am and the program will begin at approximately 11:30 am.
Open to Mines faculty and staff
Faculty Panel Discussion: Approaches to AI in STEM Assessment: Challenges, Strategies, and Innovations
Monday, October 26 | 1:00-2:00 PM | Green Center 224
How are Mines instructors integrating, resisting, or harnessing AI to enhance STEM assessments? Join us for this faculty panel discussion, which will feature 5-minute flash talks from Mines faculty across STEM disciplines. We’ll hear from faculty who are developing interactive oral assessments to validate student learning, using AI to streamline assessment workflows in large classes, and using AI to develop immersive, novel learning experiences. The flash talks will be followed by a moderated Q&A and discussion, leaving you with both actionable strategies and inspiration for your own courses. Lunch and drinks will be provided!
Open to Mines students, faculty and staff
Film Screening & Community Forum: The AI Doc, Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist
Monday, November 2 | 6 PM | Bunker Auditorium, Green Center
From the Academy Award®-winning filmmakers behind Everything Everywhere All at Once and Navalny; a father-to-be tries to figure out what is happening with all this AI insanity. The AI Doc is a hand-made, eye-opening documentary about the most powerful technology humanity has ever created… and what’s at stake if we get it wrong. Stay with us for a post-screening discussion facilitated by our student-led Kickstart Dialogue Program. Co-hosted by multiple student groups, courses, and units on campus, this event promises to bring the Mines community together to discuss one of the most important issues of our time.
Open to Mines faculty and staff
Workshop: Teaching Communication Skills in the Classroom
Tuesday, November 10 | 10-11:00 AM | Green Center 224
Effective communication skills are necessary for all university graduates, no matter the industry they pursue. Mines students—who employers often cite as technically adept but in need of communication skill development—are no exception. In this interactive workshop, we’ll identify strategies for reinforcing communication skills in the classroom, identify essential communication skills in our disciplines, connect communication outcomes to classroom activities and/or assignments, and discuss ways that communication practice may be complicated or augmented by AI. Participants will acquire strategies for linking STEM communication literacies to individual courses, as well as an understanding of how the new Mines Communication Hub can support faculty efforts to incorporate communication skills across the curriculum.
Learning Communities & Clubs
Course Coordinator Learning Community
Are you a current course coordinator or will take on the course coordinator role in the near future? Please join us for the fall 2026 course coordinator learning community. Course coordination can be a complex and ambiguous task, and it’s challenging to support everyone involved in the course when we ourselves may feel overburdened or undersupported. This learning community will discuss long-term institutional responsibilities and positionalities of coordinators at Mines. Learn from your colleagues across departments as we explore the various roles, responsibilities, and workload models of coordinators. In addition to sharing what you’ve experienced as a coordinator, we will envision new ways of supporting students, TAs, instructors, and ourselves.
First meeting: Wednesday, September 2
Community of Practice: Promoting Education Research (COPPER)
Are you interested in education research, but don’t know where to start? Do you engage in education research and are looking for others to work with? Have you tried starting an education research project, but could use a support network for feedback and accountability? If so, the Community of Practice Promoting Education Research (COPPER) might be for you! COPPER is a new community of practice for members of the Mines academic community (graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, faculty, etc.) interested in discipline-based education research (DBER) and the scholarship of teaching and learning (SOTL). We meet once a month with the intention of advancing three long-term goals: 1) develop education research skills and knowledge, 2) foster research collaboration and mentorship, and 3) provide accountability among members.
First meeting: Thursday, September 3
Past Event Recordings
Alumni Panel: AI in the Workplace
Event Description: How are alumni using AI in the workplace? What key skills are important for current Mines students to develop before they enter the workforce? How do they stay current with AI, given its rapid progression? 4 alumni share their experiences and observations from the feild.
Student Panel: What Mines Students Think of Generative AI and their Learning
Event Description: How are Mines students thinking about and using generative AI in the classroom? How do they see it impacting their learning? View this virtual webinar to hear perspectives from a panel of Mines undergraduates and graduate students.
Student Panel: Accessibility on Campus from the Student Perspective
Event Description: What accessibility challenges have students faced in their courses and on campus? What strategies can faculty incorporate to make their courses more accessible to all students? A panel of students who have a disability will share their experiences and ways that faculty can support their learning.
Would your program or department be interested in hosting a Trefny workshop, training, or other event?