Alumni
LESSONS LEARNED
Professors who incorporate innovative assignments into their classes
receive high grades from students.
By Lindsay Beller
Anyone who has enrolled in a college course knows the drill: read hundreds of pages, write papers or lab reports, take notes on lectures, contribute to class discussions, study for exams, stress until grades come out, and repeat. But some professors add an assignment to the mix that that teaches a lesson through a hands-on experience.
Spectrum spoke with several faculty members who developed assignments with an experiential learning component either in or outside the classroom. While students are the ones who get the grades, they gave high marks to their professors for these experiences, reporting strong connections to the material, broad perspectives on the subject matter, and exposure to career options.
Here's a look at some of the creative ways that professors are teaching and how their students evaluated the experience.
CREATIVE WRITING AND TRANSLATION
THE CLASS | Creative Writing and Translation, taught by Professor of French Cynthia Hahn, focuses on what goes into translating written French — an understanding of the cultural context, development of a narrative voice, grammar, and style — through creative work and published text.
The ASSIGNMENT | To translate Lebanese author Evelyne Accad's book of short stories, Femmes du Crepuscule (L'Harmattan, 2008), or Women of the Twilight, from French to English. After this, the class met with the author in person to discuss and clarify their translations over two days, followed by revisions based on the workshop. Professor Hahn, who has translated other books written by Accad, will edit all of the translated stories and submit them to a publisher for consideration this summer with credit to the students for their contributions.
THE GRADE | Samantha Hartwig '09 gained more insight into what Accad was looking for by working directly with her. "I was able to ask her questions, like whether she wanted us to keep the same tense," she says. For Hartwig, it also shed more light on the translation process. "The style of writing in French is different, and you can lose that feeling when you translate the material," she says. "You have to take into account the differences of the cultures and understand how to make the translation come across to the larger audience."
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| Photo by Anne Houde |
EVOLUTION
THE CLASS | Evolution, taught by Professor of Biology Anne Houde, studied the patterns and processes of evolutionary biology, which is the study of how diversity arises.
THE ASSIGNMENT | To conduct research on the evolution of birds at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago using its collections that go back 130 years. Professor Houde wanted the students to look at how natural selection affects bird populations. Students selected a species and researched how they varied based on location. They had to collect, document, and organize a large amount of data.
THE GRADE | Jessica Disch '09 looked at whether owls differed between North Carolina, Florida, and Illinois by measuring the wing lengths of birds from all three areas. She used an Excel spreadsheet to track location, year, sex, and wing length. Although her results were inconclusive, Disch also saw how two types of owls evolved differently, observed the stuffing process, and looked at skeletons. "It helped us learn about natural selection, and we could see the evolution of certain specimens," she says.
MASS MEDIA AND MARKETING RESEARCH
THE CLASS | Mass Media and Marketing Research, taught by Professor of Economics and Business Les Dlabay, centered on the ability to do quantitative and qualitative research in cross-cultural settings.
THE ASSIGNMENT | To serve as consultants for world relief organizations, including CARE, Habitat for Humanity, Save the Children, World Vision, and others. Professor Dlabay wanted his students to learn how to do market research not only in industrialized nations but in developing countries too. Students were assigned to a country and an organization. They used research methods like focus groups, surveys, and interviews to learn about their organizations' needs, and developed a product concept to promote and raise money for the organization.
THE GRADE | Jackie Starr '09 worked on behalf of Bright Hope, a nonprofit that helps countries in need. After interviewing the president, she surveyed students about their donating habits and found that a personal connection to the cause would make them more likely to give money. Starr proposed that Bright Hope representatives establish connections with campus groups to hold fundraisers and visit classrooms with beneficiaries of their work. She also considered how research techniques need to be adapted in Thailand and determined that going door-to-door would reduce misunderstanding across cultures. "I liked having the personal connection with Bright Hope," she says. "It made the assignment real and I cared more about it."
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| Photo by Shelley Sherman |
CURRICULUM AND INSTRUCTION IN THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS:
MATH AND SCIENCE
THE ASSIGNMENT | To facilitate a science lesson between local high school and elementary school students at nearby Elawa Farm. The Lake Forest students had already participated in a training session where they learned about the science lesson in detail, which involved identifying and learning about milkweed plants and bugs. They joined pairs of elementary and high school students, answered questions that came up, and ensured that the lesson was followed properly. The class is part of the K-16 Initiative with Lake Forest and Lake Bluff Schools, which is an ongoing partnership that provides the college students with clinical teaching experiences and mentoring opportunities.
THE GRADE | As a future elementary school teacher, the experience gave Jessica Parr Õ09 ideas about what she could do in her classroom. "The biggest thing for me was having the chance to see high school students working with elementary students, and realizing this as a possibility for me as a teacher," she says. Parr also explained why experiential learning is an effective teaching method. "ItÕs one thing for students to hear or read about it in a classroom. They can still learn from it. But having the chance to get out there and see for themselves will help them remember the lesson better."
URBAN AND SUBURBAN POLITICS
THE CLASS | Urban and Suburban Politics, taught by Assistant Professor of Politics Caroline Nordlund, covers topics like racial and economic segregation in Chicago, and how local politicians instituted this through housing policies, zoning laws, man-made boundaries from highways, and other political maneuvers.
THE ASSIGNMENT | To ride one of three L trains — red, green, or blue — from end to end. Professor Nordlund wanted her students to see firsthand the segregation in Chicago and assigned the class to sit one student per train car and record observations about how the buildings, riders, and neighborhoods changed.
THE GRADE | James Russell '12 used to live in Hyde Park but never paid much attention to the shifting landscape as he rode the red line up and down the North and South Sides of Chicago. This time, he took notice. "I sat by the window and looked at how people dressed and talked, the shops, the types of housing, and how it changed throughout the neighborhoods," he says. "When we got to the South Side, I was the only white person in the car. It brought to light the fact that Chicago is such a segregated city.
It also showed me how the L unites the neighborhoods and brings people together."
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| Photo by Will Pittinos |
DOMAINS OF HUMAN EVIDENCE
THE CLASS | Domains of Human Evidence, taught by Assistant Professor of Sociology and Anthropology Holly Swyers, covered the four fields of anthropology and investigated the evidence of human behavior. One of the fields, archeology, was the focus of the assignment below.
THE ASSIGNMENT | To map out the golf course that advertising pioneer Albert Lasker built on his 480-acre Lake Forest estate in 1925 after local country clubs rejected him because he was Jewish. By 1943 the property was subdivided and now includes more than 330 homes, but some features of the golf course remain. Students overlaid a 2005 Google image on a 1943 plat map, toured the area, and examined such evidence as old photos, course descriptions, and scorecards. Then they were assigned to visit specific homes to map out parts of the course and contributed their final analyses to a Lake Forest-Lake Bluff Historical Society exhibit about golf in the region.
THE GRADE | At their assigned property, John Bon '10 and his group found two bunkers, part of the green, and the hole. "The hole was used for whiffle ball and all that's left is the post," Bon describes. "That was a landmark for us. It gave us a visual of what the green looked like." He adds that the experience, in addition to teaching him how to plot out an area, showed him that even a little evidence can tell you about the past. "You can still see a lot, based on what little evidence you have, and trace what was once there," he says. "But it's up to you to find it."
Lindsay Beller is the editor of Spectrum.