DAILY LOBO new mexico
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friday August 24, 2012
The Independent Student Voice of UNM since 1895
LOBO S P O T L I G H T
CAMPUS COLLISION
Alumnus f ills high-ranking Navy position by Hannah Stangebye news@dailylobo.com
Capt David A. Culler Jr. The commanding officer of the largest naval station in the world is a former Lobo. Capt. David A. Culler Jr. became commanding officer of Naval Station Norfolk, in Norfolk, Va., on Aug. 2. Culler said the naval station houses 63 warships and about 180 aircraft. “Our mission (at Norfolk) is to support the U.S. Atlantic Fleet,” he said. “As commanding officer, I make sure everything works effectively and efficiently every single day.”
Culler said he is a secondgeneration naval pilot, following in his father’s footsteps, and that his father’s naval career is what initially brought Culler to New Mexico. He said he lived in New Mexico as a child while his father worked for the Navy squadron stationed at Kirtland Air Force Base. Culler always knew he wanted to be a pilot, and that he would have to work hard to become one. He attended Cleveland Middle School, Del Norte High School and UNM, where he moved into Laguna/DeVargas Hall with four of his closest friends. “You can imagine, we did not exactly do as much studying as we should have,” Culler said. “I felt like I was sort of digging my way out the whole time, but by the time I graduated, I ended up doing pretty well.” Culler said the best times he had at UNM were spent on Johnson field, where he and his friends would play football on fall nights. “The fall weather in New Mexico has to be one of my fondest memories of my time at UNM,” he said.
see Spotlight PAGE 2
Juan Labreche / Daily Lobo
Flashing lights lit up the corner of Redondo Drive near the intersection of University Boulevard and Central Avenue Thursday afternoon after a motorcycle hit a pedestrian. UNMPD Sgt. Gilbert Lujan said a UNM graduate student came around the corner on Redondo Drive on his motorcycle and grazed a pedestrian, UNM student Samantha Allen. Lujan said the motorcyclist swerved and had to lay down his bike in order to avoid hitting Allen. Both students sustained minor injuries and were allowed to walk away from the scene. Lujan said that in his three years at UNMPD, he has never responded to an accident in the area, despite the blind corner.
Altered room design promotes interactive learning by Svetlana Ozden news@dailylobo.com
On Aug. 27, construction will begin on a $9 million collaborative-learning building that studies show will help students better retain information they have learned in class. The Collaborative Teaching and Learning Building, the second
phase of the College of Education building plan that began November 2009, will open in fall 2013 and include six classrooms. The new building will include one classroom designed in the Student Centered Active Learning Environment for Undergraduate Programs, or “SCALE UP,” classroom style, which focuses on the needs of students by
Legend: Student Pod (seats nine)
Inside the
Daily Lobo volume 117
issue 6
promoting more student-tostudent interaction instead of student-teacher interaction. The project is funded by about $6 million in General Obligations bonds, taxpayer money, and about $3 million in UNM bonds. UNM bonds are issued by the University and, in the past, were paid back in part by student facility fees. The new building will be located
Teacher’s Desk
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near the social sciences building, Anderson School of Management, Technology and Education Center and Travelstead Hall. Studies from other universities around the U.S., such as the University of Pittsburgh, Florida State University and Penn State University, show that students’ success rates improved in courses taught in the new SCALE-UP classroom style. Some of the courses that show increased success rates include physics, biology, math and engineering. At Clemson University, about 44 percent of students dropped or failed an introductory calculus course prior to fall 2006. That rate dropped to 22 percent after the class was taught using the SCALEUP model. The SCALE-UP classroom will be on the third floor of the Collaborative Teaching and Learning Building and can hold up to 126 students. It will include computers or laptops at each of the 14 round tables, each of which seats nine students, and an instructor station in the center of the classroom. UNM President Robert Frank, who implemented the same classroom design at Kent State University, said the new classroom style has grown out of the onlineclass community, where students often work together and discuss projects and assignments. He said that allowing students to engage with each other promotes more
active learning and improves student success rates. “We know active learners have better retention of learning material, and so that change is very positive in my view and most educators’ views,” he said. Frank said the change in classroom styles is being incorporated in schools around the world and that the University will continue to move toward updated classroom styles but will keep some traditional classroom designs. “This is sort of like the industrial revolution of higher education,” he said. “It’s a whole big change of how we do everything. It’s a very exciting time.” College of Education administrator Diane Gwinn said the class will be split into three subgroups at each table and that projects will be broken up into three parts. She said students will work together on their portion of in-class projects, collaborate with the rest of the group and then present their findings, questions or comments to whole class. Gwinn said this style will allow students to work together while the classroom instructor works individually with each of the groups. She said this teaching style has proven to help students better retain class material. “Studies have found that students help teach each other than better than the old ‘sage-onthe-stage’ concept,” she said.
see Classroom PAGE 5
TODAY
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