Spring 2005

Rethinking Courses

The University Teaching Fellows Program aims to help our most intellectually sound and successful junior faculty members develop into exceptionally fine teachers. The selection committee-comprised of award-winning faculty-seeks to choose junior faculty members who show promise of becoming both eminent researchers and inspiring teachers. In existence since 1992 and funded by the Provost, the UTF Program remains true to its original Lilly Endowment goals to support impressive junior faculty as they refine their teaching expertise while pursuing strong research agendas. The Program centers around ongoing conversations about how faculty communicate their academic disciplines to undergraduates, how various teaching approaches might enhance one's courses, and how research enlivens and inspires teaching. The 2004-05 winners of University Teaching Fellowships are rethinking these courses:

Aniko Bodroghkozy, Media Studies/English
I will focus on revising MDST 201: Introduction to Media Studies, a core course in the Media Studies Program and one of the most important of our offerings. It serves as the main entrée for students considering the major and also as the standalone course most associated with the mission of the Program. My goal is to completely reimagine how I teach material I have been teaching for many years, and to thereby better instill into our students my passion about the absolute necessity of media education and a media-literate citizenry.

Bob Hirosky, Physics
I am continuing my development work in PHYS 254: Fundamentals of Computational Physics. This course offers a unique combination of practical computing skills, illustrations of how we can understand complex physical systems, and experience with statistical processes. I am interested in developing additional on-line projects and interactive tutorials to supplement class reading and lectures; in fostering more passionate course participation through group projects; and in broadening the scope of our example applications. These can be used to relate techniques in computational physics to applications in wide-ranging disciplines across the physical, biological, and social sciences.

Slava Krushkal, Mathematics
"Geometry and Imagination" is a new introductory-level mathematics course. The course assumes a background in mathematics at the high-school level and will introduce classical as well as contemporary concepts in mathematics. The focus is on intuitive understanding of geometric concepts and developing analytic and visualization skills. Topics to be covered in class include graphs and the travelingsalesman problem, maps and the four-color theorem, symmetry and tilings, knots, geometry of hyperbolic surfaces, curvature, growth and Fibonacci numbers, and the fourth dimension.

Hsin-hsin Liang, Asian and Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures
I am redesigning CHIN 402: Advanced Readings of Modern Chinese into a much more contentoriented course incorporating various topics from different disciplines. Through reading Chinese materials obtained from different media, discussing a range of issues in Chinese and in English, and having dialogues in Chinese with visiting experts, students will enhance not only their language capacities but also their knowledge of Chinese culture. Consequently, I hope they will see this course not as the end point in their study of Chinese, but rather as an introduction to the study of China in Chinese throughout a wide range of academic disciplines.

Nancy Weinfield, Psychology
The course project I am pursuing during my fellowship year is the revitalization of PSYC 305: Research Methods and Data Analysis I. This is a required course for all psychology majors and minors, and student lore holds that this course is very difficult and not fully relevant to the pursuit of psychology. Unfortunately, the course does lack the excitement and applied focus that are natural parts of scientific investigation. Through the University Teaching Fellowship I hope to find ways to improve on the existing course, adding new elements of hands-on learning and new strategies for communicating the thrill of research.

Caroline Westort, Landscape Architecture
The study and design of earth works involves a full suite of aesthetic, technical, environmental and cultural considerations. For design and engineering students to develop proficiency with such a complex medium, they need to fall in love with it. I thus propose for myself three tasks. First, I will formulate a coherent conceptual framework upon which I can structure topographic representations, grading methods, construction techniques and case studies. Second, I will explore a range of pedagogies—lectures, discussion, group, inclass and homework exercises, and hands-on field-project work—to match suitable ones with my objectives. Finally, I will test and refine the flow and pacing of the course material with students.