Heather Barnes is the founder and CEO of Improv@Work. She teaches presentation skills at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management, and she previously was an instructor at Chicago's Second City, Director of the Center for Advancement of Science Education at Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry, and Director at the Shedd Aquarium.
Our work has been partly supported by Eischen's NSF CAREER grant DMS-1751281, her NSF research grant DMS-2302011, and the Williams Fund.
Ellen Eischen is a professor of mathematics at the University of Oregon and a von Neumann Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study. In addition to her mathematical training, she has substantial training as an improvisor, which turned out to have a significant impact on her professional development. She is the PI on two NFS grants that have supported our work.
Next workshop:
* Improv for Mathematicians and Statisticians
a pre-workshop activity for participants in the
Infinite Possibilities Conference
April 10, 2025 at IMSI, University of Chicago
Who We Are
About this project
We are developing a series of interactive workshops that provide tools and exercises adapted from improvisational theater to help increase engagement in the classroom and beyond. Our prior projects include workshops for instructors like Yes And! Improvisation as a Tool for Enhancing Teaching and Learning and Whose Math is it Anyway? Interactive Engagement in Remote Classes, as well as integration of improv exercises into an undergraduate math class. For more information, email Ellen Eischen at eeischen@uoregon.edu.
Yes And!
Improv for Math and Science