Teaching & Advising
Students Perceive Time and Space Relationships In Spatial Thinking Class
UNC Charlotte students work together to prepare a giant red balloon for liftoff. They have attached a camera to the balloon’s string to take aerial photographs of the UNC Charlotte campus that they will use to create a map. Through exercises like this one, students in the geography class on spatial thinking gain hands-on experience that expands their understanding of the concept, which offers a geographic perspective on how objects, processes and phenomena relate to each other in time and space.
Exceptional Faculty Receive College 2017 Teaching Excellence Awards
In recognition of their exceptional teaching, Ashley Bryan, Nishi Bryska and Ian Marriott have received the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences’ Excellence in Teaching Awards for 2017. Dean Nancy A. Gutierrez and the awards committee chairs commended the honorees and award finalists for their innovation, creativity and focus on engaging students in scholarship and research.
Paper Trails: Author Traces Family's Journey Through Time
The soldier’s face has faded in the World War II photograph, falling victim to the ravages of time. Yet, even as the picture has turned cloudy, the image of her father has grown sharper in Barbara Presnell’s mind. Presnell, an award-winning documentary poet and essayist, has captured the story of her father William G. Presnell in her Blue Star collection, published earlier this year by Press 53 in Winston-Salem.
Psychology Receives Provost's Teaching Excellence Award
The Department of Psychology received The Provost’s Award for Excellence in Teaching for 2016, in recognition of the department’s efforts to improve students learning and outcomes, through the collective responsibility of faculty members for maintaining high-quality teaching.
Dowd Initiative: Effort Explores Capitalism From Historical Perspective
The Dowd Initiative, created by the Department of History and supported by the Dowd Foundation, allows the department to offer courses on historical themes of business interest; in particular the impact of capitalism on regions and society from diverse historical perspectives. Guest speakers are bringing their points of view, while professors teaching the classes are linking their research and their teaching.
UNC Charlotte Botanical Gardens Cultivate Creative Class Setting
The hushed tones of UNC Charlotte students add another note to the song in the UNC Charlotte Botanical Gardens, as faculty turn to the Gardens to study subjects ranging from graphic design to ecological interactions. They and their students embrace nature and gain inspiration from the natural world.
Producer Acts As Artist-in-Residence
Hollywood writer and producer Calvin Brown Jr. is serving as the 2017 Africana Studies Artist-in-Residence from March 13-March 23, 2017. Brown, a University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill graduate and native Charlottean, Brown will guest lecture in classes, meet with students in a brown bag question-and-answer session, and work with select students to produce a short film on the history of the Africana Studies Department.
CMS Teachers Study With Researchers in CTI Initiative
Through a pilot program called the Summer Research Experience for Teachers, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools teachers collaborated with professors and graduate students in UNC Charlotte lab settings for the first time in summer 2016, to increase teachers' access and exposure to the settings where scientific research occurs.
Writing Course Redesign Shifts Students' Writing Understanding
Writing is foundational to the overall success of all UNC Charlotte students. When faculty in the University Writing Program started discussing changes to the first-year writing curriculum, the focus was on discovery of the best way to provide knowledge and support.
Geology Students to Step Outside Classroom, Back in Time
Students in UNC Charlotte geologist William Garcia’s classes can imagine they have stepped back in time to the Mesozoic era, as they follow an interactive path of dinosaur footprints newly installed on the university campus. His students and others on campus are now able to step outside the customary lecture-based classroom setting and participate in a hands-on, kinesthetic learning experience.
