04/24/2009
A&S Outstanding Teaching Awards Announced
The College of Arts & Sciences announced the recipients of the 2009-2010 Arts & Sciences Outstanding Teaching Awards. The recipients are Irene Chico-Wyatt of the Department of Hispanic Studies, Joe Straley of the Department of Physics and Astronomy, Greg Stump of the Department of English and Director of the Linguistics Program, and Alice Turkington of the Department of Geography.
Irene Chico-Wyatt (Senior Lecturer, Department of Hispanic Studies)
Dr. Chico-Wyatt is described by colleagues as a “superb and versatile teacher” and as a “magician” in the classroom. Her students don’t just like her; they revere her. She is enthusiastic and passionate about her subject, and she has received stellar student evaluations. She is creative and innovative in her teaching and incorporates new theories and technologies. Beyond the classroom, she has served with distinction as the Academic Coordinator of Elementary Language Instruction for more than seven years. This assignment entails responsibility for over 3,000 students, 30 teaching assistants, and 12 part-time instructors. She does all this with great skill and in a becomingly modest and unassuming way.
Joe Straley (Professor, Department of Physics and Astronomy)
Professor Straley has taught physics courses at every level of instruction and has done so with great enthusiasm and creativity. His colleagues and students speak of him in the highest terms. He has been at the forefront of physics education and has inspired more than a generation of students, and teachers, to love physics. In addition to meeting with great success in teaching PHY 160 for teachers, he is well known for his Physics Petting Zoo, a collection of objects organized into stations, each of which helps people to understand some small piece of physics. This “zoo” has visited schools, museums, science fairs, and street fairs. He has been at the forefront of physics education and has inspired more than a generation of students, and teachers, to love physics.
Greg Stump (Professor, Department of English)
Professor Stump has been a model teacher at UK for 26 years. A linguist in the Department of English, he has taught an impressive range of courses from Modern English Grammar to Historical Linguistics and Sanskrit Philology. Professor Stump connects exceptionally well with students in and out of the classroom, as current and former students and colleagues attest. Even more mpressive than the extraordinarily high numeric assessment of his teaching is what students have to say about him in the classroom. Comments on course evaluations range from the laconic ("I'm sad this is the last class I'll ever take with him") to the poetic ("Professor Stump is so good at what he does that he could teach Underwater Basket Weaving to a group of small flightless birds") and straight to the point ("best professor I've had at UK").
Alice Turkington (Associate Professor, Department of Geography)
Professor Turkington has been at the University of Kentucky for just eight years, but during that time she has established the reputation for being an outstanding geography teacher at all levels and in all venues. Perhaps her greatest accomplishment has been the development of her engaging new undergraduate course on Global Climate Change. Her efforts to incorporate new, often controversial environmental data, along with the constantly shifting social and political contexts of the climate change debates, makes this course one of the most popular on campus. Professor Turkington’s teaching energizes and inspires her students, and her passion for student learning greatly enriches our campus.