Weekly News and Tip, August 30, 2007

Tip - Use the Campus as Your Classroom
You may have seen students outdoors on campus, examining flora or sketching buildings, or your colleagues pointing out properties of a tree or extending student's vocabulary in a new language. These are some of many ways to use ISU's beautiful campus as a classroom. For ideas on "Campus-Based Learning," see:
http://serc.carleton.edu/introgeo/campusbased/index.html
For further examples of campus-based learning at ISU, see:
http://www.museums.iastate.edu/TESTS/AOC.htm
and
http://www.nrem.iastate.edu/elwood/about.html

Announcements

• WebCT GOLD: Managing Students & Grades, Thursday, Sept. 6, 10-11:30 a.m., 1230 Communications. Learn to use the WebCT gradebook, Group Manager, and the Tracking and Reporting functions. You need to have had Introduction to WebCT GOLD or some familiarity with WebCT. Register through AccessPlus (go to Employee > HRS Training > Continue > Courses).
• Outcomes Center for problem-solving/critical thinking. Faculty members interested in student skills in areas (such as communication, problem-solving, ethics, visual aesthetics, and creativity) that cut across traditional departments are working on outcomes centers to explore common interests in these areas. Several of these groups will be meeting this semester. Interested faculty are invited to the initial meeting of the problem-solving/critical thinking outcome center on Tuesday, Sept. 4, 12-1:30 p.m. in 2030 Morrill. For more information, contact Craig Ogilvie, associate professor, Physics, at mailto:cogilvie@iastate.edu

FYI - Beloit Describes First-Years' World View
Once again this year, Beloit College has produced a "Mindset List" about traditional-age beginning college students, most of whom, this year, were born in 1989. For example, in their experience Nelson Mandela has always been free and Wal-Mart has always been a larger retailer than Sears. For more thoughts on the perspective of the class of 2011, see:
http://www.beloit.edu/~pubaff/mindset/2011.php

Your suggestions for the CELT Weekly News and Tip are welcome. Send them to syager@iastate.edu . To subscribe to this weekly e-mail or unsubscribe, celt@iastate.edu .