Index to Teaching Effectiveness Award Essays

By Year

2006-2007 Winning Essays (Alphabetized by Title)

• A Voice in the Sciences, Ryan Steele, (Chemistry)
• Creative Writing and the Horizon of Expectations, Carl Olsen, (Scandinavian)
• Critical Objectivity and Sentence Style Improvement, Monika Gehlawat, (English)
• Drawing to Learn: One Way to Teach to Multiple Learning Styles, Laurel Westbrook, (Sociology)
• Implementing the Scientific Learning Cycle in the Confines of a Classroom, Carolyn Sparrey, (Mechanical Engineering)
• Instilling Effective Study Skills in Students: Start Early, Know Your Weaknesses, Jennifer McGuire, (Integrative Biology)
• Interaction and Integration: How to Teach Students with Varying Expertise, Robert Held, (Bioengineering)
• Learn at Your Own Pace, Angela Chau, (Bioengineering)
• Making It Fun: Framing Literary Discussion as a Social Practice, James Ramey, (Comparative Literature)
• Reversing Roles: How would Your Students Devise a Section Lesson Plan?, Veronica Herrera,
  (Political Science)
• Stretching the Field of View, James Su, (Vision Science)
• Teaching Critical Skills in Legal Studies, Sonya Lebsack, (Legal Studies)
• Teaching Students with Diverse Backgrounds, Matias Cattaneo, (Economics)

• Using a Focal Organism as a Teaching Tool in General Biology, Maria Goodrich, (Integrative Biology)

2005-2006 Winning Essays (Alphabetized by Title) [top]

• An Exercise in Writing Descriptive Field Notes for Anthropological Research, Jelani Mahiri (Anthropology)
• Conquering “40% of the Grade”: Interactive Strategies for Helping Students Prepare for Comprehensive Final Exams, Wendy Sinek (Political Science)
• Creativity in the Composition Classroom, Nichole Sterling (Scandinavian)
• Dispelling the Fear of Proofs, Ari Nieh (Mathematics)
• Finding Ways that Everyone Can Contribute Creatively: Using Visual Learning Techniques and Small-Group Exercises to Promote Cooperative Learning, Kenneth Haig (Political Science)
• Getting on the Same Page, Susan Hicks (Geography)
• Hide and Go Seek, or Could We Play with Accounting?, Tatiana Fedyk (Business Administration)
• Motivating Students with Choice, Mary Trahanovsky (Materials Science and Engineering)
• Solar System on a Laptop: Visualizing the Dynamic Universe, Daniel Perley (Astronomy)
• Sources into Evidence; or, Rethinking the Research Requirement in Reading and Composition Courses, Leonard von Morzé (English)
• Teaching by (Bad) Example, Julia Comerford (Astronomy)
• Teaching Mitosis and Meiosis Using Metaphor and Play-Acting, Benjamin Freedman (Molecular and Cell Biology)
• Teaching the “Errors of the Past”, Matthew Sargent (History)
• Utilizing a Unifying Experiment to Enhance Conceptual Integration, Jason Ng (Vision Science)

2004-2005 Winning Essays (Alphabetized by Title) [top]

• A New Approach to Teaching and Learning, by Timothy Randazzo, Ethnic Studies
• Becoming a Better Socrates, by Benjamin Yost, Rhetoric
• Bringing Opera Closer to Home, by Michael Markham, Music
• Crossing Disciplinary Boundaries through Drama, by Oron Frenkel, Public Health
• Designing a Better Laboratory Course, by Richard Keith Slotkin, Plant and Microbial Biology
• Experiments in Communicative Latin, by William Short, Classics
• Getting in Touch with Your Inner Physicist, by Badr Albanna, Physics
• Improving Writing Skills and Alleviating Grading Confusion, by Christopher Rider, Business Administration
• It Said What?: Reading Critically for Bias and Point of View, by Amy Lerman, Political Science
• Lessons from a Lesson on Stellar Evolution, by Kathryn Peek, Astronomy
• Strategies to Provide Information Without Providing Answers, by Christie Dowling, Civil and Environmental Engineering
• "Telling" Tales: The Quest for Meaning in Indian Folklore, by Vasudha Paramasivan, South and Southeast Asian Studies
• The Challenge of Thinking Historically, by Alejandro Reyes Arias, Latin American Studies
• The Meaning Behind the Symbols, by Aubrey Clayton, Mathematics
• The Undergraduate Research Paper, by Karen McNeill, History
  

2003-2004 Winning Essays (Alphabetized by Title) [top]

• Current-Literature Problem Solving as a Connection to the Real World: How Solving a Problem in the Classroom Expanded Professor-Graduate Student Mentorship from the Laboratory into the Classroom, by Suzanne Blum, Chemistry
• Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about Literature but Were Afraid to Ask the Saturday Evening Post: or, How Literature is Like Math, by Mayumi Takada, English
• Giving a New Tune to Grammar, by Hélène Bilis, French
• How to Encourage Lecture Attendance through Discussion Activities, by Mathew Wedel, Integrative Biology
• Increased Class Participation: Accommodating for Diverse Styles and Skills, by Elzbieta Benson, Sociology
• Learning by Doing: Using Simulations to Teach Political Science, by David Radwin, Political Science
• Making a Connection to the Distant Past, by Catherine Becker, History of Art
• Motivating a Broad Audience with Research, by Sophie Dumont, Molecular and Cell Biology
• Music and Multi Media: Staging Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring, by Anna Nisnevich, Music
• Social Science Meets Physical Science, by Jessica Owley, Environmental Science, Policy and Management
• Teaching Alice, by William Dichtel, Chemistry
• Teaching Roman Monuments, by Kimberly Cassibry, History of Art
• The Campus as Laboratory: Teaching Students to Think Historically About the Built Environment, by William Scott, History Department
• Undergraduate Astronomy Journal Club, by Louis-Benoit Desroches, Astronomy
• When Wrong is All Right, by Gautam Borooah, Mathematics
• Writing an Epistolary Novel in a Heritage Speaker Class, by Victoria Somoff, Slavic Languages and Literatures

2002-2003 Winning Essays (Alphabetized by Title) [top]

• A New Way to Appreciate Cicero's Style, Yelena Baraz (Classics)
• An Epic in Miniature: Collaborations on a Thesis, Lael Gold (Comparative Literature)
• Breaking the Mathematical Language Barrier, Alexander Diesl (Mathematics)
• Development of an Inquiry Based Activity from a Content Intensive Curriculum, Amanda Heddle (Environmental Science Policy and Management)
• Emphasizing Concepts in a Yeast Genetics Laboratory, Elizabeth Shank (Molecular and Cell Biology)
• Groupwritten, Meredith Thomsen (Integrative Biology)
• How to 'Show' Sociology in an Academic World of 'Telling', Ana Villa-Lobos (Sociology)
• If 'Writing about Music is Like Dancing about Architecture,' Maybe it is Time to Draw: Using Visual Aids to Introduce Musical and Stylistic Analysis, Francesca Rivera (Music)
• Incorporating Practice into Theory-Based Curriculum, Lyn Paleo (Public Health)
• Practice Matters: The Design and Teaching of an Introductory Clinical Seminar, Christine Zalecki (Psychology)
• Putting the Text Back in Text Book, Chantelle Warner (German)
• Re-Membering Our Histories, Re-Visioning Our Histories, Re-Writing Our Selves, Huma Dar (South and South East Asian Studies)
• Revitalizing & Contemporizing Ancient Literature, Heidi Saleh (Near Eastern Studies)
• Science Education: Focus on Core Analytical Skills, James Endres (Molecular and Cell Biology)
• Slimemolds vs. the MCATs, J. Peter Coppinger (Plant and Microbial Biology)
• Teaching an Uncommon Sense, Sarah Cunningham (Integrative Biology)
• Teaching History Students to Read Between the Lines, Lisa Kaborycha (History)
• Teaching Triangulation of Research Methods, Jess Wendover (Architecture)
• Theory as a Map, Gretchen Purser (Sociology)
• Think Out of the Box, Gaurav Punj (IEOR)
• Using the Peer-Review Process to Stimulate Classroom Discussion, Bryan Zeitler (Molecular and Cell Biology)
• Writers into Readers, Charles Scott Combs (Film Studies)
• The Zen of Reductions (How to Understand Computers by Becoming One), Ajeet Shankar (Computer Science)

• Bringing Home the Bacon: Navigating the Congressional Budget Process, Kathryn Pearson (Political Science)
• Charting the plot of 'La noche boca arriba,' Mary Becker Quinn (Spanish and Portuguese)
• Creating Coherence with Conceptual Maps, Edith Replogle Sheffer (History)
• Demystifying the Thought Process, Viswanath Sankaran (Mathematics)
• Developing a Substantive Understanding of the Concepts of Normality and Pathology, David Gard (Psychology)
• Engaging with Primary Sources and Making Connections to Readings and Lectures, Tania Martin (Architecture)
• Helping Students Understand Prejudice, Helen Boucher (Psychology)
• Mathematics: The Universal Language of Science, Antar Bandyopadhyay (Statistics)
• Monstrous Texts: Overcoming Resistance to Literature, Mai-Lin Cheng (English)
• Musical Form and Active Learning, Laura Basini (Music)
• Players in the Pathway, Susan Schwab (Molecular and Cell Biology)
• TALC: Individualized Assistance through Collaborative Learning, John Johnson (Astronomy)
• The Renaissance Lyric Poem as Pop Culture, Kimberly Johnson (English)

2000-2001 Winning Essays (Alphabetized by Title) [top]

• Do Our Students Understand the Relevance of What We are Teaching Them? Natalia Ferretti (Political Science)
• Hands-on Experience of French Irony, Connie Anderson (French)
• I Love to Listen to Music, But I Don't Know Anything About It, Melina Esse (Music)
• Improving Laboratory Courses, Nicholas L. Pivonka (Chemistry)
• Incorporating Design-for-Environment into the Undergraduate Product Design Curriculum, Eric Masanet (Mechanical Engineering)
• Is Ariel the Same as the Little Mermaid?, Selby Schwartz (Comparative Literature)
• Journals: The Key to Small Group Participation, Heather McCarty (History)
• Linking Theory and Experiment in a Biochemistry Lab, Giulietta Spudich (Molecular and Cell Biology)
• Musical Representation and Musorsgky Pictures at an Exhibition, Holly Watkins (Music)
• Research Methods Applied to Public Health Topics: Using Breakout Groups to Foster Problem Solving and Critical Thinking, Jennifer Bensadoun (Epidemiology) & Alexander Minnis (Epidemiology)
• Teaching Bourdieu: Observing the Habitus in Sites of Consumption, William Hayes (Sociology)
• Teaching My Students to Fish, A.S. (Ed) Cheng (Mechanical Engineering)
• Transforming Quizzes into Teaching and Learning Tools, Jennifer Powell (Molecular and Cell Biology)
• Understanding the Lives of Ancient Egyptians, Deanna Kiser (Near Eastern Studies)

• An Example of the Use of Frameworks in Skills-Based Learning, Terry O'Brien (Integrative Biology)
• Chemistry: The Other Foreign Language, Joel Thornton (Chemistry)
• Cultural and Communicative Approaches to Teaching Music, Mathew Gelbart (Music)
• Encouraging and Affirming Diverse Forms of Class Participation, Paul Dosh (Political Science)
• From Description to Analysis, Andrea Zemgulys (English)
• Hearing John Cage: An Approach to Introducing Ambient Music, Brian Current (Music)
• Kinesthesis in Science: Where Red Rover Meets Quantum Mechanics, Steve Dawson (Astronomy)
• Non-Standard Approaches to Post-modernist Literature, Kate Elkins (Comparative Literature)
• Not Exactly Dick and Jane: Using Children's Books to Make Theory Accessible, Anne Marie Richard (Education)
• Reciting Latin Verse, Edan Dekel (Classics)
• Teaching to Different Modes of Learning, Alexander Kauffman (Integrative Biology)