Friday @ the Center
November 6, 2009
"W" Course Faculty Workshop
A workshop for faculty who are teaching W courses this year will be held on Friday, Dec. 11, from 9 a.m. until 3 p.m. Led by Tom Amorose, Director of Campus Writing, the workshop will focus on assessing and commenting on student writing in “W” courses, with the goal of providing a common campus vocabulary for talking about writing. Participants will receive a stipend of $125 and a free lunch. Enrollment is limited to 20. Please contact Anna Miller to register.
Remember the GE Task Force?
If you are wondering what they are discussing, check out the regular posting of their minutes on the GE Steering Committee page, which also include the names of committee members, their time line, and the June 2009 UPEC report on General Education. Lately, the Task Force has been discussing the place of skills in the Exploratory Curriculum. Faculty questions, comments or concerns can be sent to generaled@spu.edu.
Best Teaching Idea
This week we feature Doug Downing’s “Microeconomics Market Stimulation” from the 2009 SPU Best Teaching Idea competition. By having students participate in a class stock market, this exercise helps microeconomics students learn about the many factors that affect supply and demand. At an initial auction, students bid for stocks in Apple Pie, Chocolate Chip Cookies, Cinnamon Rolls, or Ice Cream. Students then are able to trade stock with other members of the class, at a mutually agreeable price, providing them with an opportunity to experience a disorganized market. A computer-network trading system in which students post offers to buy or sell and the computer matches offers provides a contrast with a disorganized market. A class vote at the end of the trading period determines the final value of the shares. At the end of market experience, the class discusses the economic principles they have learned through the stimulation. More information about the process, including the status of this quarter’s stimulation is available at the link above.
Happy Teaching,
Susan Susan VanZanten |
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