The Department of Geosciences has been selected to receive the 2016 University Senate Departmental Award for Excellence in Education, according to a University release. The award carries a $30,000 grant that will be administered in three yearly installments of $10,000 and used for activities that enhance teaching and learning.
“The Department of Geosciences is to be commended for its teaching excellence and progressive planning, and for putting together an excellent proposal that reflects their departmental goals,” said Auburn University Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Timothy Boosinger. “The award recognizes the faculty’s dedication to their students.”
The award, established at Auburn in 2013 and first presented in 2014, is administered through the University Senate Teaching Effectiveness Committee on behalf of the Office of the Provost the release states. The Department of Geosciences will be formally recognized as the recipient during the faculty awards program in the fall.
Academic departments across campus were invited to submit to the Teaching Effectiveness Committee pre-proposals summarizing the departmental philosophy of teaching and learning and a narrative describing the approaches used to achieve and measure excellence in those areas in early 2016.
Four finalists were selected to give presentations detailing learning excellence and plans for future activities to enhance teaching and learning.
The winning proposal for the Department of Geosciences was written as a team effort by Department Chair Mark Steltenpohl and faculty Ronald Lewis, John Hawkins, Stephanie Shepherd, Daniel McGowin and Carmen Brysch.
“The Department of Geosciences is made up of a diverse set of transdisciplinary researchers and teachers for whom the whole Earth is our laboratory,” Steltenpohl said. “Our faculty bridge both the social sciences and the natural sciences, perhaps more so than any other unit on campus. We emphasize traveling the globe to involve students in field- and laboratory-based research and educational experiences that include study abroad courses, always placing a human face on science.”
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