Still inquiring on inquiry

It has been awhile since myself or anyone else has contributed to this blog. The end-of-semester crunch is always followed by a period of tying up loose ends left over from the academic year, as well as traveling and catching up on domestic work at home (mowing the lawn, planning plants, etc). Now summer is more than half over and its time to start looking forward to the coming academic year. A number of activities are in the planning stages for the fall. A couple are described here.

Our core group from the Undergrads Engaging in Inquiry program last fall and spring is working closely with one of the new Distinguished Teacher Scholars for 2008-2009. Ann Abbott is an Assistant Professor in Spanish, Italian, & Portuguese. Ann is developing a series of summits and meetings that will offer unique opportunities for Illinois faculty and staff to meet with local community leaders. We look forward to getting a better understanding of how we might further prepare our students for their careers, as well as learning how we might strengthen interactions with the local community. Of course discussions of the inquiry process and how it may be integrated into student learning will be a consistent theme throughout that series of summits and meetings interactions, whether it be integrating inquiry into courses as a means of helping students learn about and understand community, or as the process by which we form collaborations with the community to achieve goals of mutual interest. More on Ann’s plans later.

Judy Sunderman, Andrea Bohn and I will be conducting the Animal Sciences Study Abroad Colloquium again this fall. This course is aimed at ACES students who have recently participated in some sort of international learning experience. The course is designed to encourage students to reflect on their international experiences, share their experiences with their classmates, and enhance their understanding of the full impact that their international experience has had on their personal and professional development. These students will then be provided several opportunities to use their special knowledge to influence how other students think about gaining international experiences, as well as how instructors think about integrating international perspectives into their courses. A tall order, indeed. Helping students understand how they have used the inquiry process to gain their experiences, and can use it to gain further value from their experiences, will be an ongoing theme during the semester. Although this course has mostly been animal science majors these past couple of years, we hope to make it a college-wide course in 2009.