6A || Friday, May 1, 2009 || Central Michigan Life
I n n o vat i v e t e a c h i n g
Last FaCIT candidate focuses on student learning at open forum By Griffin Fraley Staff Reporter
sihang zhang/senior photographer
The Central Michigan University Police Department keeps lost objects such as cell phones, watches and keys at the Combined Services Building, 1720 S. East Campus Dr. Students, faculty, staff and visitors are encouraged to inquire about lost or misplaced articles between the hours of 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.
Unclaimed lost and found items go to auction, profits police scholarship By Lindsay Knake Senior Reporter
If students lose any possessions on campus, they can check the Central Michigan University Police lost and found to see if it is there. The CMU Police Department picks up items weekly from other buildings on campus, said CMU Police Chief Stan Dinius. “We have coats, umbrellas, iPods, jewelry and wallets,” Dinius said. “We do try to find the owners if we can identify them.” A student assistant will add and remove items on the online log, which students can check at www.police.cmich.edu. The lost and found has hundreds of items, Dinius said. The online list has items from alcohol to written statements, and Dinius said occasionally there are items such as ammunition. “On occasion, we’ll find a stray bullet, usually during hunting season,” he said. Lost and confiscated bicycles also are taken to the police station.
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“You’ve got to get there. There’s lot of treasure to be found.” Mike Vier, University Stores and Warehouse Operations manager If the owners are not identified or do not come in to pick up their lost possessions, the items are auctioned off at the university surplus sale, Dinius said. “Items under $100 sell in three months, more expensive items are sold in six months,” he said. The money collected from the department lost and found is given to the police scholarship fund. Mike Vier, manager of University Stores and Warehouse Operations, said the surplus auction typically takes place on the last Friday of each month, as long as it is not related to a university closure or holiday. The auction features equipment and university-opened property that is no longer fit for use or has been replaced, Vier said. “Everything from furniture, everything from the offices, sometimes we have things from
buildings. All of the surplus goods,” he said. The sale, held at the Auction Barn in lot 1 at the intersection of Bellows and Douglas Streets, runs from noon to 2 p.m. on a first-come, first-serve basis. The next public sale is a live auction at 9 a.m. June 20. “Everybody’s welcome,” Vier said. The average attendance is 125 people and the overall sales come to approximately $2,000 each month, Vier said. “It’s a really good sustainable renewable business venture. We take things the campus no longer needs and gives them a second life and keeps them out of a land fill,” he said. “You’ve got to get there. There’s lot of treasure to be found.” metro@cm-life.com
Mechanical references can describe one way to stimulate learning in a student. This is the philosophy of Tamara Rosier, a candidate for director of the Faculty Center for Innovative Learning. “I envision teaching as pulling levers, which turn gears,” Rosier said. “When you can pull these levers, that’s when learning can begin.” Rosier presented her lecture, “Learning Levers: Applying Research Themes to Improve Learning,” during an open forum Wednesday at Bovee University Center. Rosier, the final candidate for FaCIT director, currently holds a position as Assistant Director of Assessment at Grand Valley State University. Her role at CMU, should she get selected, would be to help professors evaluate themselves and advise them on how to best teach their students. Rosier said her teaching philosophy is built around pulling four different levers.
“I envision teaching as pulling levers, which turn gears. When you can pull these levers, that’s when learning can begin.” Tamara Rosier, FaCIT director candidate
The first lever is the motivation to learn. The second lever is metacognition, or thinking about thinking. Rosier said this consists of monitoring your progress and making changes or adapting as you learn. “There’s many times that students don’t know that they know something,” Rosier said. “Students don’t get that learning is difficult. We have to teach this to our students. This isn’t an optional thing.” Lever three is transfer learning, she said. The ability to extend learning from one context to another is key. The final lever is memory, where prior knowledge is connected, patterns are recognized and the information becomes useful. Some at the forum thought Rosier was attentive to get students to learn.
“She reminded me of the need in getting others to think of how they’re thinking about their own learning,” said Reo McBride, director for the Center for Instructional Design. McBride is designing a course for faculty to teach them how to develop online courses. He said the presentation would affect how he designs his course. Some attendees also felt Rosier’s philosophy is very important to understand. “I think brain research is really important to know so faculty can know what is going on in their students’ heads, so they can structure their classes and enable learning,” said Ireta Ekstrom, instructional developer for FaCIT. university@cm-life.com