With the goal of sharing teaching practices among faculty and improving the overall teaching and learning environment on campus, The Teaching and Learning Center hosted its ninth annual poster session on May 9.
Submissions deemed tops among for the 2007-08 Teaching Awards, included:
Leahy Award for Learning Innovations
(judged by the previous Leahy winners)
Dr. Salar Alsardary, Mathematics, Physics and Statistics
Interactive, Learner-Centered Methods of Teaching Mathematics Courses
The judges felt that his innovation is:
- course-wide
- learner-centered
- a complete revision of the course
- and employs truly innovation teaching/learning methods
He provided formative and summative assessment of his innovation to show that it is working. Further, he has presented this innovation at two conferences and it has been accepted for a publication. Thus, this innovation represents all of the criteria for the
Leahy Award.
Bright Teaching Idea, this year for teaching critical thinking and problem solving
(Voted on by department chairs and the Teaching and Learning Center Advisory Committee)
Dr. Bernard Brunner, Mathematics, Physics and Statistics: Newton’s Third Law as a vehicle for promoting critical thinking
Newton’s Third Law is very difficult to teach and even harder for the students to understand. This is a very innovative and insightful way for the students to engage with this law so that they can not only understand it, but also use in critical thanking and problem solving.
Christine Flanagan – The Experiential Text in General Education
The judges liked how she uses the experiences to allow students to think about how humans make choices and why they made the choices at that time. On this science oriented campus, it is also important to realize that we teach critical thinking and problem solving across the disciplines.
Jason Porter, Dr. Alison Mostrom, Eva Agbada, Leslie Ann Bowman, Catherine Purzycki, and Kevin Wolbach from the Departments of Biological Sciences and Information Sciences
Learning to SMILE: Developing First Year Students’ Critical Thinking Skills Using an Angel Based Scientific Method and Information Literacy Exercise. This award has multiple authors.
This is an assessment of a successful method to teach students how to read and evaluate scientific literature that has been implemented for many years in the General Biology course. This project showed that these students are learning not only how to interpret scientific literature, but also are learning to appreciate the importance of these skills.
In recognition of other teaching activities on campus, adjunct faculty were selected for honors:
Adjunct or Part-Time Faculty Awards
(Nominated by students, faculty or chairs)
Matthew Monberg, Biomedical Writing
Mr. Monberg teaches a totally online class. He obviously spent plenty of time putting together well considered and detailed presentations with a large volume of information. As someone who presently is working in the field, Mr. Monberg does a great job of bringing in the latest real-world examples. He does a good job of communicating the key issues in the industry and key factors relating to employment capabilities. He is always very available, quick to respond to mails and questions in a helpful manner.
Dr. Janet Monge, Biological Sciences
Her students describe her enthusiasm as contagious. Dr. Monge’s impact is best highlighted by the growth of her class which has increased 50 percent since Spring 2007 when it was first offered. The class has significantly increased the depth and breadth of our student’s understanding of Forensic Science. Dr. Monge spends time at USP each week to meet with students, and thoroughly enjoys doing so.
Dr. Vincent Willey, Jr., Pharmacy Practice
Dr. Willey has made an enormous impact on our students, and he often offers to help fellow faculty with their students. Dr. Willey provides the students a systematic approach to problem solving, especially in a topic area, statistics, most students find difficult and abstract. Instead of simply providing students answers, he guides them to the correct answer. Additionally, he helps them to understand why an incorrect answer is incorrect.