Five University of Georgia faculty have received a 2018 First-Year Odyssey Teaching Award in recognition of their success as innovative teachers in the First-Year Odyssey Seminar program. They will be honored on April 12 at the fifth annual First-Year Odyssey Seminarreception thanking all FYOS faculty. The FYO Teaching Award recognizes outstanding instructors who have demonstrated creativity or innovation in instruction, connection of seminar content to the instructor’s research, and incorporation of FYOS program goals into the seminar. This year’s recipients have been fully engaged with their students, provided them with a strong connection to the university through their research, and tied their curriculum directly to FYOS program goals.
Award recipients and their seminar titles include:
Kevin Burke is an associate professor of language and literary education in the College of Education. He uses his background in ethnography in his “Schooling Masculinities” seminar to explore with his students how masculinity and gender directly and indirectly influence everyday life. As part of the course, Dr. Burke requires students to do several activities that contribute to their acclimation to the university: 1) conduct observational research as a means of engaging with their campus and seeing experiences through a different lens; 2) make an appointment with him outside of class to become accustomed to interacting with a teacher one-on-one as part of the academic culture at UGA; and 3) select their own readings and write a response on a deadline of their choosing to teach them to think and plan independently.
Melisa Cahnmann-Taylor, professor of TESOL and World Language Education in the College of Education, immerses students in improvisational theatre games and embodied approaches to creative conflict resolution in her seminar “Theatre for Embodied Personal and Social Change.” Her students rehearse personal and social change and prepare for an interactive improv event with youth at the State Botanical Garden, as well as co-lead an interactive theatre event for families. They explore how theatre tools can help them practice skills and then apply them to act in ways that bring about increased understanding and positive, productive change for global citizenship. The performance-based techniques that students practice in the course push them out of their comfort zones by applying improvisation to problems many first-year students face. Most of the assignments are geared to an individual understanding, as well as tied to the campus and community experience.
Jamie Cooper, associate professor of food and nutrition in the College of Family and Consumer Sciences, uses her research on reducing obesity to give her students a scientific framework for nutrition, along with skills and tools for healthy eating as part of her seminar “Healthy Eating: Exploring Truths and Myths.” Her students learn about the nutrients and foods that make up a healthy diet, the nutritional health of popular fad diets, and practical steps and behavior modification tips to eat a healthy diet while transitioning to college life. She includes lab demonstrations on measuring metabolism, health markers, and diet analysis, all of which is reflected in discussions, writing assignments, and interactive learning activities. Cooper also successfully engages her students in a meaningful way with scientific research and critical reading by having them use particular library resources to research and critique scientific articles. She also introduces them to undergraduate research and the CURO program and has them write a sustainability grant proposal. Throughout the semester Cooper invites guests to talk about campus opportunities, like UGArden and study abroad.
Michael Robinson, an assistant professor in the School of Social Work, believes that students learn more from doing and should get out of the classroom and into life. In his FYO seminar “Photo Elicitation: A Day in the Life of a UGA Student: A Cultural Perspective,” his students interact with five individuals from different cultures using pictures to elicit conversation in an effort to explore diversity and how the definition of diversity is always changing. Each participant develops a presentation using pictures and narration to compare three perspectives with their own. Students learn a useful method for data collection while learning about someone from a different culture. They also get to explore the UGA campus as they learn. Through these interviews, the students developed and implemented the concept of an Instagram photo blog called dawgsofuga, based on the popular humansofnewyork project. Students in Robinson’s next FYO seminar will be required to continue the project as part of their assignments.
Marshall Shepherd is the Georgia Athletic Association Distinguished Professor of Geography and Atmospheric Sciences. His uses his FYO seminar “Hurricanes, Tsunamis, and More: Studying Planet Earth from the Vantage Point of Space” to expose students to an array of Earth System Science topics (e.g., hurricanes, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, fires, floods, drought, landslides) from the vantage point of space. His 12 years as a research meteorologist at NASA provide the basis for developing team approaches to design an Earth observing satellite. These team approaches allow the students to understand physical mechanisms, establish inter-connectivity, and link to the needs of a changing earth system due to natural and human-related processes. Students are assigned roles of project scientist, project engineer, chief technologist, and public relations specialist within a team and then present their project before the class for review and critique. Their in-class work is enhanced by virtual lectures given by NASA scientists.
The University of Georgia is a leading institution for providing a first-year student engagement experience that promotes student success from start to finish. The FYOS program, administrated by the Office of the Vice President for Instruction and taught by faculty who tie seminar content to their own scholarly research, is unique among other first-year seminars in the nation. UGA’s innovative seminars also help introduce students to the academic culture at UGA through participation in a variety of lectures, campus performances, and success workshops, coupled with social events and learning opportunities outside the classroom, Since its inception in 2011, every first-year student—over 39,000—have completed a First-Year Odyssey Seminar. Faculty from every school and college and more than 89 departments have participated in the program. Each year the program offers more than 300 courses across a vast spectrum, from “Animal Forensic CSI” to “The Science of Chocolate” to the “Zombie Plague.”
For more information about the First-Year Odyssey Seminar Program, visithttp://fyo.uga.edu.