UGA Columns September 2, 2014

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School of Art welcomes new director, Chris Garvin, to campus QUESTIONS&ANSWERS

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The University of Georgia 2nd Thursday concert to feature works by Gershwin, Beethoven

Vol. 42, No. 6

www.columns.uga.edu

September 2, 2014

mdchilds@uga.edu

Paul Efland

UGA held a groundbreaking ceremony Aug. 26 for the state-of-the-art Science Learning Center. Among those taking part in the program were, from left, State Sen. Bill Cowsert, University System of Georgia Chancellor Hank Huckaby, Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal, UGA President Jere W. Morehead, UGA student Lydia “Meg” Babcock-Adams, State Sen. Frank Ginn and State Rep. Chuck Williams.

Building up science UGA breaks ground on state-of-the-art Science Learning Center

mattdc@uga.edu

In a ceremony that included remarks by state and university leaders, UGA broke ground on its newest state-of-the-art learning facility, the 122,500-square-foot Science Learning Center. The public event was the ceremonial start to work on the learning facility, which will be located at the southwest corner of the D.W. Brooks Mall, adjacent to Pharmacy South and across from the Miller Plant Sciences Building. UGA President Jere W. Morehead said the Science Learning Center will transform the way faculty members teach and the way students learn in the basic sciences. “We say on this campus that

4&5

National teaching expert will speak at education conference By Michael Childs

By Matt Chambers

UGA GUIDE

every decision we make should be for the benefit of our students, that the students should come first,” Morehead said. “The Science Learning Center is certainly emblematic of that philosophy.” Morehead said that more than 40 percent of this year’s first-year students have announced an intended major in the sciences. “This high interest in the STEM disciplines—science, technology, engineering and math—is a very positive development and bodes well for the future of our state and our nation,” he said. The Science Learning Center’s 33 instructional labs will be designed specifically for interactive learning in core undergraduate science courses. Funded by Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal and the Georgia

General Assembly, the center will cost $44.7 million and feature design elements that promote active learning. The facility will contain two 280-seat lecture halls and two 72-seat SCALE-UP classrooms. SCALE-UP stands for StudentCentered Active Learning Environment for Undergraduate Programs, a learning model that focuses heavily on group-work class participation and technology—making student-to-student and student-to-teacher interaction easier in a larger class setting. Deal and University System of Georgia Chancellor Hank Huckaby also lauded the many benefits of the Science Learning Center in their remarks during the ceremony. See GROUNDBREAKING on page 8

Richard Ingersoll, a national expert on the profession of teaching, will be the keynote speaker at the UGA College of Education’s seventh annual State of Education Conference on Sept. 18 at the Georgia Center. The nominees for state school superintendent, Democrat Valerie Wilson and Republican Richard Woods, will be the luncheon speakers. The two will make brief presentations and answer questions. Ingersoll, a professor of education and sociology at the University of Pennsylvania, will talk about his latest research on teacher preparation, teacher retention and the transformation of the teaching workforce. Ingersoll was a UGA faculty member in the sociology department from 1995-2000.

The theme of the one-day conference is “Improving Student Achievement through Educator Preparation and Richard Ingersoll PreK-16 Partnerships.” It will include concurrent sessions presented by UGA faculty and other education experts on: • student learning through a professional development-school collaboration; • measuring teacher impact on student achievement; • performance-based measures of teacher readiness; • a collaborative approach to teacher induction; and • strategies for retaining highly

See CONFERENCE on page 8

Franklin College of Arts and Sciences

Als, author and ‘New Yorker’ drama critic, will give reading By Jordana Rich jerich@uga.edu

Hilton Als, staff writer and drama critic at The NewYorker, will read from his work on Sept. 12 at 6 p.m. in the M. Smith Griffith Auditorium of the Georgia Museum of Art. The reading, part of the Institute for African American Studies’ fall lecture series, is free and open to the public. Als began work as a staff writer at The New Yorker in 1994 and became its theatre critic in 2002. His writing has appeared in the Village Voice and The Nation. He served as an editorat-large at Vibe and collaborated on film scripts for Swoon and Looking for Langston. In 1997,the NewYork­Association

of Black Journalists awarded Als first prize in both magazine critique/ review and magazine arts and entertainment. He received a Guggenheim Fellowship for Creative Writing in 2000 and the George Jean Nathan Award for Dramatic Criticism for 2002-2003. In 2009, Als worked with performer Justin Bond on Cold Water, an exhibition of paintings, drawings and videos by performers, at La MaMa Gallery. In 2010, he co-curated Self-Consciousness at the Veneklasen Werner Gallery in Berlin and published Justin Bond/ Jackie Curtis, his second book. Als’ most recent book, White Girls, received the LAMBDA Literary Award for LGBT nonfiction and

See READING on page 8

institute of higher education

public service and outreach

IHE to mark 50th anniversary From peaches to ports: New faculty learn about with yearlong observance economic development in Georgia during tour By Margaret Blanchard special anniversary of sustaining By Kelly Simmons

simmonsk@uga.edu

Before Ben Davis ever stepped in front of a class, he found ways to engage his students. The new assistant professor of mechanical engineering was on the 2014 New Faculty Tour of the state. During a stop at the Kia Motors Manufacturing plant in West Point, he spotted an opportunity to show his students the kind of jobs they could look forward to

after graduation. “It is hard to find something more connected to mechanical engineering than an automobile, and the Kia factory was the most impressive manufacturing facility I have ever seen,” Davis said. “Their use of robotics and just-in-time manufacturing techniques is like something out of a science fiction novel, and I look forward to taking my students to the facility to expose them to what a truly state-of-the-art manufacturing facility looks like.”

Davis, who was an engineer at the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, before joining the UGA faculty this summer, was one of about 40 academic and service faculty on this year’s tour, which was coordinated by the UGA Office of Public Service and Outreach and made possible by support from the Office of the President, the Office of the Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost See TOUR on page 8

wmblanch@uga.edu

The Institute of Higher Education launched its 50th anniversary with a celebratory reception Aug. 27 at Meigs Hall. The celebration included the reading of a proclamation issued by Gov. Nathan Deal noting the date as “Institute of Higher Education Day,” in honor of the institute providing 50 years of “extraordinary educational service for Georgians.” “We are excited to celebrate this

excellence within the field of higher education,” said Libby Morris, director of the Institute of Higher Education. “We’re proud of the institute’s legacy and the reputation of our faculty, graduate programs, alumni and public service efforts. The 50th anniversary provides the opportunity to reflect on past successes and envision new goals for the future.” Scheduled events throughout the year include an academic roundtable

See ANNIVERSARY on page 8


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