Monday Missive
March 16, 2009

Welcome back from Spring Break!
 
Kudos
Winnie Mucherah is gathering accolades on several fronts.  Winnie has won the BSU Excellence in Teaching award that will allow her to create her own dream course focused on contextual issues in child development.  This is the most prestigious teaching award on campus and will include a presentation of the award at the fall faculty meeting.  But it is not only her teaching that is being recognized – her research is also being recognized.  Winnie has also been awarded the 2008 Best Published Paper Award for the AERA Learning Environments SIG for her paper Classroom climate and students' goal structures in high school biology classrooms in Kenya. This is truly in recognition of the impact Winnie's research is having on the field.  

Winnie the department is very proud of your work!!!
 
AAIR Summer Assessment Grants 
Don't forget the Office of Academic Assessment and Institutional Research has funding available for summer assessment projects that support the Goals and Objectives found in the University Strategic Plan, 2007-2012.  Funding priority will be given to two types of initiatives:  (1) those that address the development, refinement, or assessment of objectives related to departmental student learning outcomes or (2) those that deal with data gathering and analysis needed for programmatic/departmental/collegiate accreditation. The deadline is March 30, 2009.  I have copies of the RFP if you are interested.
 
Independent Learning Graduate Courses and Graduate Certificates
Last week Kathryn Fletcher (our GEC representative) sent out a note regarding the possibility of offering independent learning graduate courses.  Please be sure to review this material and provide her with any feedback or concerns.  Remember these are courses where students may enroll any day and complete work within a set time frame.  We currently offer several undergraduate courses in this format.
 
Also, please think about series of courses we could offer as certificate programs for graduate students.  Certificate programs are not alternative to degrees and do not guarantee admission to any graduate programs, however if a student is admitted the course work could be applied.  Right now we have a certificate in neuropsychology, but I can think of other areas where we might offer a set of specialized courses.  Please let Kathryn know of your thoughts.
 
I hope I have not forgotten anything, but if I have please let me know.
 
Here is to a great week!
 
Lisa