The Center for Teaching at USM has announced the recipients of this year’s Provost’s Fellowships for Teaching Excellence. The fellowships are awarded annually in recognition of both an educators past contributions to the University, and their future plans. This years winners are Associate Professor of Environmental Science Rob Sanford, Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences David Champlin and Associate Director of Honors Writing and Thesis Research Kaitlin Briggs.
“We originated this award two years ago to acknowledge the importance and centrality of teaching at USM,” said Provost Joseph Wood. Every year nominations for the fellowships are accepted from students, faculty and staff. The nominated educators are then asked to submit a proposal of what they would do with the fellowships prize, an operating budge and award of $1000, which are then evaluated by the advising committee of the Center for Teaching.
“The advising committee felt it was important to have the award be more than just a check, but to have some action attached to it, like a research award,” said Wood. “This is award to go do something.” Last year the fellowship was awarded to one senior professor at USM; this year three fellowships are being awarded, one to a senior professor, one to a tenure-track professor and one to a staff member who teaches a class or has teaching as a regular part of his or her job.
This year’s senior professor is Robert Sanford. His proposal plans to harness the hidden potential of the USM committee. “I think there are a lot of people at USM quietly doing a lot of impressive things,” said Sanford. “Part of my idea is to go around and find these people, and use students to help find them. I want to connect people who know how to do things with people who need it.” Sanford plans to create some kind of publication from his research: “I’d like to have something we can give to a new teacher, something someone can look at and say, hey I can rip that off.”
David Champlin won this year’s tenure-track faculty award. Champlin works with students in lab, and sees his nomination as a vindication of the success and effort of his students: “I’ve been here four years and the students I started with are just graduating, and now they are being accepted into the best doctoral programs in the country.” Champlin plans to organize meetings with other faculty in the physical and natural sciences within and without USM who are involved with research with students. With these meetings he hopes to find new and better ways to increase student involvement, as well as find funding for research.
Briggs received this year’s staff award. She has proposed “a day of reflection to explore what it means to revise the undergraduate curriculum into a more integrated, interdisciplinary approach-not necessarily from the point of view of course content, nor from the point of view of interdisciplinary theory, but from the point of view of teaching practice, particularly writing.”