College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Iowa State University

Connection masters

Five named LAS Master Teachers for 2004-05.

Five faculty members in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (LAS) have been named Master Teachers for 2004-05.

The LAS Master Teachers named are Clifford Bergman, professor of mathematics and computer science; William Gallus, associate professor of geological and atmospheric sciences; Michael Mendelson, professor of English; Jill Pruetz, assistant professor of anthropology; and Mark Rectanus, professor of foreign languages and literatures.

This is the sixth year of the LAS Master Teacher program, which recognizes teachers who have a reputation for using unique methods to enhance student learning. This year's award recognizes individuals who have been successful in a range of teaching activities that inspire and encourage connections to other disciplines or courses, to civic engagements and communities, to research, and to real world problems and solutions to those problems.

Previous LAS Master Teacher classes have focused on technology use in the classroom, large lecture classroom instruction, undergraduate research, off-campus learning opportunities and multicultural teaching activities.

The five will plan teaching methods seminars and in-class demonstrations throughout the academic year.

Clifford Bergman has received several teaching awards including the Vinograde Award for outstanding teaching and advising in 2001 and 2004, an award given by graduate students in mathematics. Bergman is also the recipient of a 1989 ISU Teaching Award. A founding member of the Information Assurance Center, he has developed a cryptography course that is a central part of the Information Assurance program, an interdisciplinary program involving five academic departments on campus. Bergman has also organized a two-day workshop for faculty at colleges in surrounding states to start their own information assurance program or courses.

Over the past decade, William Gallus has redesigned three Iowa State meteorology courses to utilize real-world applications in the classroom. He has added lecture hours to expand the focus of the courses to cover the full range of topics that organizations like the National Weather Service expect their new forecasters to understand. To continue to help students with their understanding of meteorology he has resurrected Iowa State's participation in the National Collegiate Weather Forecasting Contest and created several different forecasting contests that are used in the courses he teaches. With other colleagues Gallus has developed a virtual storm, which enables students to experience in a virtual world what severe weather researchers realize and guided students through a real storm chase, allowing them to safely monitor a fast-moving tornado.

Michael Mendelson received the Louis B. Thompson Distinguished Undergraduate Teaching Award in 1998 and has been nominated by student groups for teaching recognition six of the last ten years. He has also played a vital leadership role in the development of Iowa State’s learning communities and ISUComm pedagogical and curricular initiatives. As coordinator of the Department of English's learning community efforts, Mendelson helped increase participation from 20 English sections linked to nine other academic departments to 64 English sections linked to 21 departments across campus.

Despite heavy teaching loads as the sole biological anthropologist at Iowa State, Jill Pruetz has developed two new courses since coming to campus in 2001. "Primate Evolutionary Ecology and Behavior" and "Biological Anthropology Field School" are both direct extensions of her current research program in primate ecology in Senegal and Costa Rica. Both courses provide hands-on, participatory experiences for students that reflect the Department of Anthropology's curricular emphasis on experiential learning.

In the course of his 20-year career, Mark Rectanus, professor of German, has provided department-wide leadership in connected learning for the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures. As the director of the Languages and Cultures for Professions program, Rectanus has forged cooperative agreements with the Colleges of Engineering and Agriculture to offer a secondary major in foreign languages for students majoring in these professional colleges. Rectanus has also been instrumental in strengthening and expanding the department’s study abroad and internship opportunities. For German students, he has created second and third year courses in business German and established an area studies course that focuses on contemporary issues in culture, industry, media and politics.n worthwhile experience.