Four University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point faculty members have been recognized as Wisconsin Teaching Scholars and Wisconsin Teaching Fellows by UW System.

Diane Bywaters of art and design (and director of Grant Support Services) and Joan Karlen of theatre and dance were awarded $6,000 each from the Wisconsin Teaching Scholars program and Brad Hinaus of physics and astronomy and Barbara Mihm of business and economics have received $4,000 each from the Wisconsin Teaching Fellows Program. The money is part of summer pay for developing a Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) project related to their teaching and for support to attend systemwide activities throughout the academic year.

The Wisconsin Teaching Scholars are mid-career faculty who receive summer salary, supplies and expenses provided by UW System�s Office of Professional and Instructional Development (OPID), UWSP�s Provost and Vice Chancellor, and the University Personnel Development Committee. The Wisconsin Teaching Fellows program, administered by UW System, provides opportunities and summer salary for faculty in their first 10 years of teaching to spend a year working to improve faculty instruction and student learning.

Bywaters will continue to develop her interest in combining sciences with the arts through her work with Art 398: Special Topics in Landscape Painting, a collaborative project with geologist Cathy Helgeland, a UW College Fellow from UW-Manitowoc. Their challenge will be to create a course that can be taught at both campuses.

"Although our campuses are 120 miles apart, we plan to use technology to bring our classrooms together and culminate the classes with an extended on-site field experience," the professors say.

Karlen�s project will involve innovative work with Dance 496: Interdisciplinary Seminar, involving collaboration, cross-disciplinary work and new technologies.

"While already a successful course that inspires innovative thinking and creating, I am interested in taking the content to new levels that include additional technologies and enable students to experiment and create with forms of the future," Karlen says.

Bywaters, who came to UWSP in 1987, holds degrees from Washington University and University of Kansas. Karlen, who holds degrees from New York University and The Juilliard School, joined the UWSP faculty in 1988.

Hinaus, who is in his fourth year at UWSP, will design a set of short 10-minute projects his general physics students can complete during the lecture period. His goal is to have students either discover the laws of physics through these projects, or after learning a law, immediately apply it to a real life situation. He holds degrees from UW-Eau Claire and UW-Madison.

Mihm, who makes extensive use of small groups in her classes, plans to help students develop team charters and institute a debriefing process for the groups.

"A charter helps students establish norms, set objectives and deal with behavioral issues. If students develop the charter there should be a sense of ownership and greater commitment to the group," she says. "Debriefing is a tool that is typically used by teams in organizations and would be helpful because students may use this type of process in work situations."

Mihm holds degrees from UWSP and UW-Stout. She began teaching at UWSP in 1998 after a career in retail management.

UWSP�s Vice Chancellor�s Office, UPDC and UW System�s OPID financially support this exciting opportunity for mid-career and early-career faculty members.

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