SANS faculty members, Candace Anderson and Drs. John Jacob, Lurline Marsh and Deborah Sauder, recently received the UMES Center for Teaching Excellence’s new “Student Choice for Teaching Excellence” award. They are among 15 recipients across disciplines on campus hailed by students as deserving of the recognition for demonstrating excellent teaching in these challenging times.
Anderson and Marsh are faculty members in the Department of Agriculture, Food and Resource Sciences. Anderson has been a part-time lecturer at UMES continuously for the past six years teaching undergraduate courses on economics. Dr. Marsh’s career at UMES spans some 17 years, including five years as chair of the department. Her expertise in horticulture and biology is shared with undergraduate and graduate students in courses such as Introduction to Plant Science Lab, Crop Physiology and Ecology, Current Issues in Sustainable Agriculture and Plant Propagation. She is also involved in research activities with students in the areas of specialty crops, organic agriculture and food safety.
Jacob is new to UMES, beginning his post as an associate professor in the Department of Human Ecology in fall 2020. He has put his previous 21 years of experience in fashion merchandising and design to use at UMES teaching introductory courses in the fashion industry, fashion forecasting and textiles.
Sauder has been a professor in the Department of Natural Sciences for seven years, serving as chair from July 2013 to June 2020. Her expansive knowledge in chemistry and chemical pedagogy has benefitted UMES undergraduate students through courses covering the curriculum from Principles of Chemistry I through graduate courses in quantum mechanics.
The creation of the award resulted from student responses from a survey by the center. Students were asked about their level of satisfaction regarding their learning experiences during the pandemic, said Dr. Cynthia Cravens, director of the center. They answered questions about challenges and successes, along with ranking the course that was most helpful to them and why.
“Fall 2020 was a stressful semester for everyone and according to the survey, students felt the most effective classes were taught by instructors who showed a high level of support, concern for their students’ health and well-being, and really took extra time to cover the material. These things aren’t easy to do online – the instructors who were able to do them really are shining examples of “teaching excellence” at UMES,” Cravens said.
UMES faculty who also received the award were: Drs. Rexford Abaidoo, associate professor, Business, Management and Accounting; Kathryn Barrett-Gaines, associate professor, Social Science; Tiara Cornelius, associate professor and chair, Mathematics and Computer Science; Ray Davis, professor, Education; Patricia Goslee, assistant professor, Education; Robert Johnson, associate professor, Mathematics and Computer Science; Sandra Johnston, lecturer, English and Modern Languages; Michael Patterson, associate professor, Education; and Dinesh Sharma, professor, Business, Management and Accounting. Andrea Taylor, coordinator for Student Retention and Support Services, and Brian Mark Zockoll, part-time lecturer, English and Modern Languages, were also recipients.
Gail Stephens, agricultural communications, University of Maryland Eastern Shore, School of Agricultural and Natural Sciences, gcstephens@umes.edu, 410-621-3850.
