ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE DAYS SHOWCASE ACHIEVEMENTS
Posted on April 2, 2012
To showcase the talents of
faculty and students, the Faculty Professional Development Committee will
present the sixth annual Academic Excellence Days Tuesday and Wednesday. This year’s theme is “Connecting
Faculty and Students Through Academic Achievement.” A variety of activities designed
to stimulate academic excellence will take place each day from 8 a.m.-3:30 p.m.
on the second floor of the Natali Student Center. The FPDC Teaching and Learning
Subcommittee will sponsor a workshop by Dr. Marie Norman, associate director of
the Eberly Center of Teaching Excellence at Carnegie Mellon University. Norman will lead “Research-Based
Principles for Smart Teaching” from 12:30-1:45 p.m. Tuesday in Room 206 of the
Natali Student Center. She will discuss three simple but powerful
principles of learning, along with teaching strategies to put these principles
into practice. Faculty members will discuss effective
uses of classroom technology and incorporating Dr. Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People into
their courses. Students will present academic research, projects and
activities. Faculty also will present posters
on topics including the Cal U Leader for
Life program and issues in health and exercise
science. The Academic
Excellence program, initiated by and supported through the FPDC, awards
competitive grants to faculty and staff who want to plan a learning community
to foster academic excellence, intellectual rigor and civil discourse. Proposed learning communities must be
multidisciplinary and include students, staff and faculty. Recipients of
the 2011 Academic Excellence awards will report on their work on last year’s
projects. The 2012 recipients
will launch their learning communities during this year’s Academic Excellence
Days and wrap them up at the 2013 event. A continental
breakfast and buffet lunch will be served both days at the Natali Performance
Center from 7:30-9 a.m. and from 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m., respectively. All members of the University
community are invited to attend this event.
Dozens of other faculty and student presentations will take place during the
two-day event. Attendees will learn how to create documents with LaTeX and how
to make medieval-style arts and crafts.
Posters created by students will be on display from 9:30 a.m.- 1:30 p.m. each
day in the Performance Center. The Student Scholarship, Research and Creativity
Day Poster Session will be held Tuesday, and the Service and Service-Learning
Poster Session will be held April Wednesday.
Artworks created by students in the Department of Art and Design will be
displayed in the Airport Lounge, where three a cappella singing groups — Cal
Singers, Vulcanize and Acappella Stella — will perform an eclectic mix of
popular music from noon-1 p.m. Wednesday.
A complete schedule of events will be available at the Faculty Professional
Development Center’s website. For more information, contact the FPDC
office at 724-938-4505 or e-mail fpdc@calu.edu.
