Issue 67

22 September - 5 October 1998

Innovative teaching ideas are rewarded

The scheme aims to promote excellence in teaching and facilitate the dissemination of best practice, while enhancing the status of teaching in accordance with the Dearing recommendations.

“The grants are quite an innovative concept, particularly for older universities,” said education development lecturer Caroline Baillie, Department of Materials, who devised the scheme.

“Any staff member involved in teaching may apply for a grant with a project which can be subject-based, department-based or College-wide, as long as the intention is to improve student learning in some way,” she explained.

Projects are supported for one year, starting in the autumn, but extensions up to three years can be granted. Applications are welcome from individuals or groups, whether within or across departments. External project partners are also welcome.

“Demonstrations when presented in the standard ‘chalk and talk’ mode, can become dry and easily forgotten,” said successful applicant Dr Martin McCall, Department of Physics.

“To be direct and meaningful, demonstrations should be illustrative of key points which enhance student retention and are not simply side-shows. Often this can only partially be achieved in physics - try demonstrating black hole physics by making one!,” he said.

Mechanics, however, is an exception. The outcome is often not ‘obvious’, or is counter-intuitive in some way. Such illustrations are often particularly striking and remembered years afterwards.”

Dr McCall described the sort of demonstrations he plans to develop with his grant: “A man is climbing a rope slung over a pulley and counter-balanced with a sandbag. Will an initial height difference between the man and bag increase, decrease or stay the same as the man climbs the rope?

“A cat is dropped feet uppermost from a suitable height and somehow manages to land on its feet without violating angular momentum conservation. This is not cruel as I've engaged the services of a local vet who has already been practising with his cat!”

For more information about the teaching development grants please email c.baillie@ic.ac.uk

1998 award winners ‘Structured development and implementation of interactive simulation-based teaching tools on the internet’: Dr Julian Allwood, Frank Kriwaczek, Dr Jeffrey Magee, Dr Ricardo Martinez-Botas, Departments of Mechanical Engineering and Computing. ‘Postgraduate certificate of demonstrator training’: Dr Esat Alpay, Department of Chemical Engineering and Chemical Technology. ‘Teaching and learning using computers: allowing for diversity in learning modes’: Dr Konstantinos Anastasiou and Professor Patrick Holmes, Department of Civil Engineering. ‘Advanced support features for computerised business simulations’: Dr Baggy Cox, Management School. ‘CAL exercises for the new first year medical course: extension and support of existing material using the LAPT Protocol’: Dr Nancy Curtin et al, Biomedical Sciences Division. ‘Surgical teaching from the operating theatre - an alternative approach with telemedicine’: Professor Ara Darzi, Surgery, Anaesthetics and Intensive Care Division. ‘Preparation and assessment of computer-aided biomedical materials teaching modules for engineering and medical students’: Professor Larry Hench, Department of Materials. ‘Teaching and assessment of law and negotiation skills on the Global Environmental Change option of the MSc in Environmental Technology’: Martin Hession, T.H. Huxley School. ‘Energy-environment policy course developments through action research’: Dr Matthew Leach, T.H. Huxley School. ‘Demonstrations for undergraduate mechanics and relativity course’: Dr Martin McCall, Department of Physics. ‘Chemical resource discovery training’: Dr Henry Rzepa and Dr Philip Kenway, Department of Chemistry.