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Combo learning
Statistics' Ken Koehler integrates research activities into the
classroom.
- One thing stands above all else when Ken Koehler, university professor
of statistics, discusses his many duties at Iowa State.
It's not his research interests that revolve around categorical data analysis,
survival analysis and multivariate statistical methods.
It's not his role as chair of the Department of Statistics. Nor serving
as director of the Statistical Laboratory.
Instead, it's Koehler’s interaction with graduate and undergraduate students
that appeals most to the 26-year faculty member at Iowa State.
"I think the interaction I have with students on campus is the most
important thing I do here at Iowa State," Koehler said. "I would
put my teaching in front of my research."
In each of his courses, Koehler helps students develop as investigators
and problem solvers. In the statistical methods courses he teaches (primarily
400 and 500 level courses), Koehler’s students develop the ability to recognize
and deal with uncertainty.
"I believe that each individual, student or faculty, has primary responsibility
for his or her own development," he said. "My responsibility as
an instructor and a mentor is to introduce new concepts and strategies for
synthesizing new ideas, to motivate the relevance and importance of concepts
and to provide training and access to technologies that enable their effective
use, and to provide opportunities for students to become actively engaged
in their own development.
"It is the responsibility of my students to take advantage of those
opportunities."
That philosophy and Koehler's performance in the classroom have led the
University to name him as one of two recipients of the 2003 Louis Thompson
Distinguished Undergraduate Teaching Award. This award recognizes faculty
members for outstanding teaching performance over an extended period of
time. The Thompson award specifically honors faculty members who show "special
distinction in undergraduate teaching."
Koehler teaches Stat 401 and 402, courses designed for graduate students
outside of statistics. He has also developed two other courses (Stat 501
and 557) that have become popular electives in the department.
He has taught several courses in the Department of Statistics' distance
education program, including the core course.
While Koehler says that he would pick teaching ahead of research, he has
been an active collaborator with researchers in the biological and food
sciences.
He says that the Department of Statistics has a tradition and culture that
values such collaborations.
"This culture has allowed me to become engaged in many different research
problems in a wide variety of disciplines, and I bring this into the classroom
as motivating examples and assignments," Koehler said. "Students
like to see that type of classroom lecture.
"By my bringing my research problems into the classroom, the students
get to see problems that are similar to those that they will be working
on," he continued.
Around LAS
September 22 to October 5, 2003
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