LAMP FELLOW OF THE MONTH (September, 2018)
Congratulations to Dr. Lori Howe who has been selected as the LAMP Fellow of the Month
for September! Dr. Howe is one of twenty-five distinguished LAMP fellows for the 2018-2019
year. Dr. Howeâs LAMP training began during the intensive week-long Summer Institute
held June 4th through the 9th. During this training Lori was immersed in active learning
strategies with a focus on team-based and problem-based learning (TBL and PBL).
With her knowledge of TBL and PBL, Lori immediately designed a first-year summer seminar
for our incoming Honors students. The students worked in multidisciplinary groups
of three to address one of the worldâs greatest problems: climate change, food deserts,
equity to public education, nutrition and healthcare. Each student served as a subject
matter expert within her or his team. For example, on one student team that investigated
rising global CO2 levels, a student majoring in chemistry researched and applied knowledge
about ocean acidification and the complex balance of bicarbonate buffering systems.
On the same team, a student majoring in economics investigated the economic feasibility
of building and city planning for carbon sequestration systems. After their summer
immersed in these problems, students gave a public presentation. This presentation
was attended by Drs. Donal Skinner and Peter Parolin, the Dean and Associate Dean
of the Honors Program. It was also attended by upper-division Honors peer mentors.
One of these mentors, Brett Ralston, commented, âYou could really tell how much work
Lori put in to making her course and how well she thought out the important details.
She has a very well-honed social constructivist take on learning that I really value,
and that greatly allowed the students to engage with each otherâs strengths to form
quality works. Lori does a fantastic job at knowing when to let the students learn
on their own and also when to step-in to support them. She is truly a great professor
to look up to when learning how to teach, and from working with her I have learned
so much.â
Dr. Howeâs detailed instructional strategy for the course elucidates the specifics
of how she facilitates studentâs appreciation of one another strengths. She immerses
them in a problem and then asks them to access and assess literature related to this
problem from within their specific discipline. She then draws a triangle on the board
and tells the students that, ââŠeach side represents one discipline in the group, but
each side connects to the other through common nodes at each corner. Your task is
to triangulate around the subtopics in this way, connecting the disciplines to generate
out of the box thinking that could change the way we look at these sub-topic problems
and their potential solutions.â Lori describes this âoutside the boxâ thinking as
triangulation.
One of Dr. Howeâs students, Alexandria Williams, commented, âthe courses that I've
had with Dr. Howe have challenged me to think more of the implications of my degree
in comparison to the mere definition of my said discipline. It's provided me valuable
insight and implications on problems I don't worry about on a daily basis due to the
fact that I have been raised in a time where the constant threat of climate change,
terrorism, and what is considered to be equality not equity is common and is considered
to be the normal. Being in Lori's class has enabled me to not only open my mind to
specific subjects, but open my eyes to a world that I was too blinded by the scope
of my specific major to see.â
In teaching a summer course that began before the fall semester had even started,
Dr. Howe gave a group of our incoming freshman the opportunity to feel included and
valued even before they began. The design of her course, because it looks at those
problems that affect disadvantaged groups most profoundly is teaching our honors students
to move forward with an education that will liberate! But no-one summarizes this better
than Lori herself. When describing her philosophy for instructional design, she states,
âMy philosophy is that team- and problem-based active learning helps to ameliorate
the passive-learner identities many students have developed through previous educational
experiences and brings them fully into partnership, accepting a crucial role of responsibility
for their educational experiences.â
Dr. Howe plans to present about her summer seminar at the T.A.S.S. (Teaching Academic
Survival Skills) conference in Florida in April. In her proposal, Lori states, â[This
presentation will take] the audience through the process of creating and piloting
an interdisciplinary summer bridge college FYS for newly-graduated high school students.
This course moved wholly to student-centered, active learning across many different
disciplinesâŠâ. Congratulations Dr. Howe, you are a most deserving LAMP Fellow of the
Month!
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