Dr. Jennifer McCall (left) & Dr. Amanda Dickens (right)

We are going to spend the next few weeks spotlighting the recipients of the Spring 2015 faculty Research grants. Get to know these distinguished faculty members below!

Names: Jennifer McCall, Ph.D. & Amanda Dickens, Ph.D.

University: University of North Carolina Wilmington

Title of Proposal: How effective is the online environment for teaching the scientific method to biology students?

Bios:

Dr. Jennifer McCall received her PhD in 2010 and is currently a lecturer at the University of North Carolina Wilmington (UNCW) in the Department of Biology and Marine Biology. She has been teaching online biology courses for the past 4 years, and began in the OAP program at UNCW in Fall 2014. She is dedicated to enhancing learning, interaction, and stimulating student thought in her online classes. She utilizes active learning assignments to encourage critical analysis and thought in her students. She is very excited to work with Dr. Dickens in this project to determine how well teaching the scientific method translates into the online environment.

Dr. Amanda Dickens received her PhD in 2008 and is currently a lecturer at UNCW in the Department of Biology and Marine Biology. She has been teaching core biology courses since 2009. She teaches large lecture courses, several labs, and has been lab coordinator for basic biology at the University of North Florida. She continuously seeks methods and tools to improve her pedagogy, to engage students, link concepts with applied activities and foster critical thinking. She is currently a faculty fellow with the Applied Learning and Teaching Community at UNCW. She looks forward to working with Dr. McCall to assess the online vs. classroom learning experience, especially with the growing demand for online courses.

Dr. Peggy Semingson

University: University of Texas at Arlington

Title of Proposal: Incorporating Just-in-Time Learning via Microblogging in an Online Undergraduate Course

Bios:

Dr. Jodi Tommerdahl

Dr. Peggy Semingson is an associate professor of Literacy Studies in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at The University of Texas at Arlington. Currently, she studies the ways that digital pedagogies can be used to engage pre-service and in-service teachers to most effectively help them to teach literacy in their current and future classroom contexts. She has won two awards related to distance learning including the prestigious 2013 USDLA Best Practices Platinum Award for Excellence in Distance Learning Teaching and the President’s Award for Excellence in Distance Education Teaching at UT Arlington.

Dr. Jodi Tommerdahl is an associate professor of Mind, Brain and Education in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at The University of Texas at Arlington. Dr. Tommerdahl’s researches the interface between linguistic and cognitive skills through the use of neuroscience (EEG) and language corpora. Specific interests include the development of morphosyntactic and logical skills in young children as well as language difficulties such as Specific Language Impairment and dyslexia. She publishes and presents in international and national venues on these topics.