SyndicateMizzou Video Podcast

SyndicateMizzou Podcast: Leslie Perna - Teaching music moves humankind forward

Wed, 17 May 2006 21:25:23 GMT

Perna discusses how teaching others about music is her part of moving humankind forward.

SyndicateMizzou Podcast: Leslie Perna - Teaching music at Mizzou

Wed, 17 May 2006 21:26:00 GMT

Perna discusses what it means to teach music in a group context at Mizzou.

SyndicateMizzou Podcast: Jim Miller - A passion for theatre

Tue, 30 May 2006 17:14:59 GMT

Miller talks about theatre, his love for it, and the challenges it presents.

SyndicateMizzou Podcast: Jim Miller - The instinct of directing

Tue, 30 May 2006 20:12:42 GMT

Miller discusses his philosophy of teaching the disciplines of directing and acting.

SyndicateMizzou Podcast: Robert Johnson - Johnson's path to philosophy

Wed, 28 Nov 2007 16:02:41 GMT

How reading Plato's dialogues influenced Johnson to become a philosopher.

SyndicateMizzou Podcast: David Brunsma - Teaching at MU

Thu, 25 Oct 2007 21:04:55 GMT

Brunsma teaches jointly in Black Studies and Sociology at MU.

SyndicateMizzou Podcast: Peter Miyamoto - Teaching and research as a pianist

Wed, 04 Oct 2006 18:37:31 GMT

SyndicateMizzou Podcast: Peter Miyamoto - Teaching Piano

Wed, 04 Oct 2006 18:43:08 GMT

Teaching piano at MU involves intensive one-on-one lessons between the student and the teacher.

SyndicateMizzou Podcast: David Jonassen - Learning on Campus

Fri, 07 Sep 2007 15:38:16 GMT

SyndicateMizzou Podcast: David Jonassen - Teaching Learning

Fri, 07 Sep 2007 15:40:08 GMT

SyndicateMizzou Podcast: Bea Gallimore - Taft Research Fellow

Fri, 26 Oct 2007 16:56:03 GMT

Within the Romance Languages Department, Gallimore has been teaching French composition, French literature and drama, and Francophone studies. During the Winter 2008 semester, Gallimore served as a Taft Visiting Research Fellow in a seminar about racism in French and Francophone literature. “Your research gives you insight for teaching,” she says, as she develops a new course on Afro-Persian writers and a new graduate seminar on testimonial writing.

SyndicateMizzou Podcast: Yuyan Luo - Courses in cognition development

Thu, 05 Jul 2007 20:20:57 GMT

In addition to running the Infant Cognition Lab, Luo also teaches cognition development courses at MU, ranging from infancy to toddler psychological and biological knowledge development.

SyndicateMizzou Podcast: Jim Koller and Karen Weston - More on the Center (Koller)

Mon, 12 Nov 2007 22:39:45 GMT

Koller offers more history on how the Center came to be, as well as on his teaching philosophy.

SyndicateMizzou Podcast: Craig Kluever - Teaching at MU

Wed, 24 Oct 2007 17:23:35 GMT

The Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering has recently developed an emphasis area in aerospace engineering. Kluever teaches such required courses in the general areas of dynamics (how bodies move and how forces produce certain velocities and accelerations) and controls (how to design a control system to do a particular task), and he teaches such elective courses as Space Flight Mechanics and Aircraft Flight Mechanics (how to design a space mission or determine such performance characteristics as take-off, landing, range, endurance, and stability with an airplane).

SyndicateMizzou Podcast: M. Heather Carver - Teaching theatre at Mizzou

Wed, 28 Nov 2007 01:56:49 GMT

Heather Carver describes herself as “a performance studies artist/scholar,” someone who investigates an issue through performance—“so we study autobiography, and we do autobiographical performance.” Carver teaches several kinds of creative writing, at both the undergraduate and graduate level, in adaptation and performance of literature for theatre and the screen. She also co-directs the Writing for Performance Program, which helps students adapt different kinds of writing for the stage or screen, including poetry, short stories, autobiography, or ethnography. And Carver serves as creator and artistic director of the Life and Literature Performance series to showcase original and adapted work by MU students for the stage.

SyndicateMizzou Podcast: Nancy M. West - Teaching at Mizzou

Wed, 13 Feb 2008 21:30:13 GMT

West teaches both undergraduate and graduate courses in the English Department on subjects bridging—like her research—the literary with the visual. She offers courses, for example, on British literature, film history, crime films, film adaptation of novels, novel illustration, and photography.

SyndicateMizzou Podcast: Nancy M. West - West’s teaching philosophy

Wed, 13 Feb 2008 21:30:33 GMT

The teaching honors awarded to West bear witness to her pedagogical skills, including the Gold Chalk Award (1999, 2005), the William T. Kemper Fellowship for Excellence in Teaching (2004), and the English Graduate Student Association’s inaugural award for Outstanding Graduate Faculty Member (2005). Reflecting on her teaching, West states: “I really believe in interdisciplinary work—not just to present students with a reference every once in a while to an artistic or scientific movement, but to really see things from _inside_ those disciplines. I think there are very rich connections to be made, and so I try to get students thinking in interdisciplinary ways.”

SyndicateMizzou Podcast: Carmen Chicone - Working with Students

Wed, 06 Feb 2008 19:14:46 GMT

As a researcher at MU, Chicone spends a large portion of his time working with students. As an instructor involved with both graduate and undergraduate students, Chicone says that he learns a great deal from those he teaches.

SyndicateMizzou Podcast: Bin Wu - What Does an Industrial Engineer Do?

Tue, 04 Mar 2008 20:41:50 GMT

Bin Wu, Professor of Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering, has been researching, teaching, and consulting within the field of industrial engineering for twenty years. “When we talk about industrial system design,” he explains, “we are talking about how to put facilities, people, and information systems together so that this system can function for whatever purpose it is designed to fulfill – for example, to manufacture or to supply. Traditionally, when we designed a system, the main efficiency considerations were related to productivity.” About three years ago, however, Wu received a wake-up call: his son’s birth created a sense of urgency to address environmental issues, and specifically energy efficiency. He realized then that when designing and improving systems, particularly industrial systems, “energy has got to be a very important consideration, if not the most important consideration.”

SyndicateMizzou Podcast: Bin Wu - Teaching at MU

Tue, 04 Mar 2008 20:42:56 GMT

Wu teaches a number of classes, at both the undergraduate and graduate level, in the area of industrial systems analysis and design.

SyndicateMizzou Podcast: Bin Wu - How Wu Came to This Area of Work

Tue, 04 Mar 2008 20:43:24 GMT

Following years principally involved in research, Wu now spends more time working with both students and the public on energy efficiency and the environment. As he puts it, “I feel very strongly that every one of us needs to do something and behave in responsible ways, individually or collectively, [to] do _something_ about it.” As an educator, Wu gets the message out to his students, who he says are the future: , “It’s really a very fulfilling thing to do. I have been a professor for all of my professional life—doing research, writing books and other publications, and teaching. I can honestly say that what I’m doing now regarding energy efficiency is absolutely the most fulfilling.”

SyndicateMizzou Podcast: So-Yeon Yoon - Teaching at MU

Tue, 18 Mar 2008 17:20:25 GMT

Yoon teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in the Department of Architectural Studies. Her courses tend to focus on emerging technology (including Interior Design, Visual Design, Computer Graphics and Design, Photoshop, 3-D Computer Animation, and Web Graphic Design). Asked how she manages to stay at the cutting edge of technology, Yoon replies that she relies on her students: “Teaching is an essential part of my research, because I can use my students’ help.”

SyndicateMizzou Podcast: Alex Barker - The Museum of Art and Archaeology

Tue, 22 Apr 2008 12:58:07 GMT

Barker has worked in several kinds of museums—natural history museums and anthropology museums. “No one feels uncomfortable going into a natural history museum without knowing about bird taxonomy or going into an anthropology museum without knowing the latest details about the origins of humans,” he says. “But a lot of people are uncomfortable coming to an art museum if they don’t know a lot about art, and that is not a good thing.” Fortunately, the Museum of Art and Archaeology combines art with classical archaeology, offering a view of the changes of art over a very long period of time. Barker has been trying to make people more comfortable with the idea of coming into the museum and having their own experience with art—engaging authentic objects, whether from antiquity or from more recent periods, on their own terms.

SyndicateMizzou Podcast: Alex Barker - More than the Object’s Label

Tue, 22 Apr 2008 13:02:56 GMT

Barker refers to a certain tension between curators, who have all this 'stuff' they want to communicate, and exhibit designers, who want to keep the exhibit as clean and simple as possible. “Ultimately, we want people looking at the art, not at the labels,” he indicates; but the Museum still wants to educate. In that spirit, the museum is experimenting with technology to showcase the art and the significance of art to everyone by creating MP3-based audio tours of the museum that can then be played on any personal audio device, including iPods, notebook computers, and even cell phones. Barker hopes this will allow greater flexibility for visitors, whom he imagines selecting a tour and walking through the galleries at their leisure while looking at the art and listening to the audio information, “instead of looking back and forth between the label and the art.”

SyndicateMizzou Podcast: SyndicateMizzou - How do research and creative activity intersect with teaching?

Tue, 06 May 2008 15:44:43 GMT

In this segment, faculty members talk about how their research and creative activity contribute to better teaching, as well as the relationship between these two aspects of their work. Frequently, the two endeavors intersect, profitting both. Carmen Chicone remarks, “If you are actively involved in your subject, you’re bound to be a much better teacher.”

SyndicateMizzou Podcast: Graduate Students - Plans after Graduate School

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 18:36:42 GMT

When asked, each individual reveals ideas about their post-graduation plans. When he graduates, for example, William Donald Thomas plans to continue the same type of research in molecular biology, in search of better treatments for breast cancer. Brian Bostick is a MD/Ph.D. student, earning a medical degree alongside a Ph.D. He explains: “My hope is to combine both clinical work as an MD, working with patients, but also to keep a research career going.” As such, Bostick intends to keep developing treatments for heart disease and “try to transfer those breakthroughs we are having in the laboratory to the bedside and help human patients.” Regarding his own ideal plans following graduation, Severin Stevenson says he would like to work in private industry for a while, but hopes that after some years of this he will return to teaching.

“There’s actually a lot you can do with a Ph.D.,” says Erica Racen. “Traditionally, people think that you go into academia and have your own lab. But I have a passion for teaching. Having come from a small liberal arts college, I would like to go back to that environment and teach.” Amy Replogle similarly reports a passion for teaching, saying, “I would love to become a professor at a small institution.”

While Andrew Cox is not certain what direction to take after graduation, he knows that he loves doing research. “I am less thrilled with the grant writing, the constant rejection, and the cut-throat nature of academia,” he responds. If he had to guess, Cox suspects that he will eventually teach: “I love interacting with students. There is really not much more thrilling than getting someone interested, involved, and engaged in research.”

SyndicateMizzou Podcast: Karen Cone - Cone’s Teaching and Outreach Activities

Mon, 22 Sep 2008 15:53:48 GMT

Cone teaches first-level genetics to biology and biochemistry students. “It is a lot of fun to teach introductory genetics,” she says, her enthusiasm obvious. She also teaches a capstone genetics course called “Human Inherited Diseases,” which explores the underlying molecular basis of certain inherited diseases in humans. “I’m not a human geneticist,” Cone specifies, “but I’ve learned about human genetics by teaching that class.” In addition to her teaching and research, Cone has done several major outreach projects.

SyndicateMizzou Podcast: Elizabeth Behm-Morawitz - In the Classroom

Tue, 28 Oct 2008 13:39:59 GMT

Behm-Morawitz’s research with media extends beyond video games. When she is teaching, she tries to make sense of the different types of media effects she observes, an approach that she hopes will advance students’ critical thinking and viewing skills.

SyndicateMizzou Podcast: S. David Mitchell - Courses Taught at MU

Sat, 22 Nov 2008 16:20:09 GMT

Mitchell teaches a broad range of courses, including a criminal justice administration course that he describes as “bail to jail”; a class about torts, which involve civil wrongs; and one called Law and Society, which examines the social context behind the law. The latter course clearly reflects Mitchell’s background in sociology, which has influenced both his pedagogy and his research. In Collateral Consequences of Sentencing, he covers felon disenfranchisement, felon exclusion laws, and prisoner reentry.

SyndicateMizzou Podcast: S. David Mitchell - Thoughts on Affirmative Action and Teaching

Sat, 22 Nov 2008 16:23:03 GMT

As one might expect, Mitchell has opinions about the recently proposed Missouri referendum that would have eliminated preferential hiring in public employment or education. The referendum was defeated because it failed to secure the needed signatures to be placed on the ballot. If there already was a substantial representation of diversity among students, staff, and faculty, he clarifies, then perhaps affirmative action would no longer be needed. “But until that day comes,” he concludes, “affirmative action is still a necessity.”

SyndicateMizzou Podcast: Kristina Narfström - In the Classroom

Wed, 18 Mar 2009 18:13:55 GMT

Narfström teaches mostly post-graduate students at MU, and she gives lectures around the world about her research. “It’s very rewarding to be a teacher and a researcher at the same time,” she says. When in the classroom, Narfström tries to pass along her excitement for research to her students, “because that is the only way to advance our knowledge.”

SyndicateMizzou Podcast: Bede Clarke - Teaching Ceramics

Fri, 30 Jan 2009 03:31:24 GMT

Bede Clarke has been teaching in MU’s Art Department since 1992, with classes ranging from beginning to graduate ceramics. Beginning ceramics classes are very design-oriented, Clarke explains, “geared toward instilling good design principles and decision-making in students.” Besides sitting behind the potter’s wheel, his students do background research on some aspects of ceramic history—“about 20,000 years of human beings making things out of clay”—a learning process that may involve a trip to the Museum of Art and Archeology as well as to Ellis Library.

SyndicateMizzou Podcast: Bede Clarke - From Inspiration to Evaluation

Fri, 30 Jan 2009 03:35:37 GMT

Although their medium is visual, ceramics students are encouraged to articulate their experiences verbally, as well as to write about them. A fundamental part of these classes involves critique, where students present their finished products to the class, talk about their inspiration and ideas, and critically evaluate the work in terms of where it has succeeded and where it has failed. Beyond creation and evaluation, students research a topic (e.g., a culture’s ceramics or a contemporary ceramic artist) and present their findings to the class. “It’s probably my favorite part of the class,” Clarke remarks, “because they become the teachers."

SyndicateMizzou Podcast: Lampo Leong - Teaching Painting and Drawing

Tue, 19 May 2009 02:02:42 GMT

In his teaching of painting and drawing at the University of Missouri-Columbia, Leong encourages his students to find their own voices in the contemporary art world. He pursues this goal, for example, by incorporating the latest digital technology, even when teaching traditional painting. List of Classes

SyndicateMizzou Podcast: Steven Watts - Courses Taught

Fri, 13 Mar 2009 18:30:28 GMT

While many of his colleagues prefer to teach more specialized courses in their specific areas of research, this 1995 winner of the William T. Kemper Fellowship for Teaching award prefers freshman-level courses such as “Survey of American History.” Watts also teaches a series of upper-division classes in American culture. Perhaps the most “fun” course he offers is, not unexpectedly, on Walt Disney.

SyndicateMizzou Podcast: Steven Watts - Research and Teaching

Fri, 13 Mar 2009 19:05:41 GMT

When thinking about research universities like MU, Watts is perplexed by people who are skeptical about the value of research at a teaching institution. Looking at his own department, he observes that “the research activity of our faculty, without question, invigorates the teaching mission of the department. It is my experience that the best teachers…are the best publishers.” Uncovering new knowledge in the field, he says, helps to “get the juices running and overflows the bounds of research alone,” enabling new perspectives in the classroom.

SyndicateMizzou Podcast: Enos Inniss - From the Field to the Classroom

Tue, 08 Sep 2009 01:33:22 GMT

Just as his students have benefited from their participation in the research process, so has Inniss: “I think the research also helps with the classroom experience—teaching—from the standpoint that there are real-world experiences that I can share."

SyndicateMizzou Podcast: Peace Corps Fellows - Distant Education

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 03:42:36 GMT

This year’s group of Peace Corps fellows spent time in West Africa, southern Africa, and Kyrgystan. Their experiences were as unique as the countries in which they were located. Nathan Jensen and Jennifer Keller worked as agricultural volunteers in Mali; Amy Bowes taught English in Lesotho; and Andy Craver taught English in Issyk-Kul. Craver’s comment that she “learned a lot more from them then they did from me” echoes the attitudes of all the volunteers.

SyndicateMizzou Podcast: Michael Podgursky - Teaching Economics

Mon, 20 Sep 2010 18:17:23 GMT

When Podgursky returned to MU to teach in 1995, he noticed there wasn’t a course on the economics of education. He immediately created the class and has been teaching it ever since. He also enjoys educating students from all majors on the basics of economics and oversees the Economics Capstone.

SyndicateMizzou Podcast: Robert Baum - Religion after 9/11

Tue, 16 Feb 2010 15:03:52 GMT

Given that half of Africa is Muslim, it is not surprising that Baum teaches a course on Islam. “Since 9/11,” however, his research on Islam has been in especially high demand. Living in Iowa at the time, he was asked to be on the “Iowans Respond” panel, which appeared on public television. Soon thereafter, Baum was giving lectures about Islam all around the state, and he eventually produced a DVD Abraham’s Children: The Shared Religious Heritage of Christianity, Judaism and Islam. From that point on, an important part of Baum’s work has involved outreach—helping people gain an appreciation for how much is shared between these world religions—Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. “A lot of the tension among the three,” he notes, “is precisely because of what they share more than the issues where they differ.”

SyndicateMizzou Podcast: Robert Baum - Intellectual Limbering

Tue, 16 Feb 2010 15:04:25 GMT

As soon as Baum begun teaching religious studies, he found people that one of the first questions people asked him was about his religion, to which he was ready with the cheerful response, “I’m an Evangelical Africanist.” “That comes from a deep commitment to make sure that Africa is included whenever we talk about the world,” he clarifies, and he loves to share this excitement about Africa with others. “I try to stretch people…to get students to see the world in as many different ways as possible, as a kind of intellectual limbering and flexibility exercise, so that they get a broader sense of what the possibilities of being human are [and] come away with more questions—about Africa, or indigenous religions, or about religions in general.”

SyndicateMizzou Podcast: Clyde Ruffin - The Director’s Philosophy

Tue, 18 May 2010 21:01:38 GMT

Ruffin explains his approach: “You know, I hadn’t really thought about whether or not I had a philosophy, because I was committed to doing what I felt was right; I’m kind of guided by my heart in that way.” He inspires his students and actors by encouraging them to be confident and to take ownership of their talent. He doesn’t believe in offering his students intensive direction throughout rehearsals and class; he feels that personal development is more valuable to human growth.

SyndicateMizzou Podcast: John Miles Foley - Teaching

Wed, 28 Apr 2010 19:53:46 GMT

As a Curators’ Professor and Byler Chair in the Humanities, Foley is well known for his teaching, offering a number of courses in the Classical Studies and English departments, and occasionally in Germanic and Slavic. For example, he currently teaches courses on oral tradition, a seminar on Beowulf, and courses in Homer and Greek literature. Foley notes that the Beowulf seminar reads the entire poem—“all 3,182 lines”—in the original language of Old English. In fact, he adds, “we have a feast at the end of the semester, when we perform it aloud so that the students can get a feel of what it’s like in the original.” Regardless of the topic, Foley infuses students with an appreciation for the beauty and complexity of language and verbal art.

SyndicateMizzou Podcast: Matt Will - Research and Teaching

Fri, 15 Oct 2010 00:16:29 GMT

Will states that his research dovetails perfectly with his teaching, allowing him to “give [students] a little window into the research field” and provide “more of the cutting-edge science than what they would get from the textbook.” He also gives undergraduate and graduate students alike the opportunity to conduct research in his lab, either through independent research projects or collaborative work.

SyndicateMizzou Podcast: Bruce Bartholow - Connecting Research and Teaching

Tue, 30 Nov 2010 15:13:55 GMT

Bartholow explains how his research and teaching intersect. In a senior-level course on research methods, for example, he discusses the procedures used in his own lab. Students are “integral to everything” in his working group.

SyndicateMizzou Podcast: Sandy Rikoon - Teaching

Wed, 03 Nov 2010 18:44:33 GMT

Rikoon, who received a Kemper Award for Teaching Excellence in 2002, and was named Curators Distinguished Teaching Professor in 2008, teaches a number of graduate-level courses in the areas of environmental sociology, the sociology of agriculture and natural resources, and political ecology, as well as an undergraduate course titled Population and the Environment.

SyndicateMizzou Podcast: Sandy Rikoon - Research, Teaching, Outreach—a Powerful Mix

Wed, 03 Nov 2010 18:45:01 GMT

Increasingly, says Rikoon, what drives his work is the pursuit of “a seamless connection” among the activities of research, teaching, and extension. While his research and teaching clearly inform each other, Rikoon explains that outreach has become a larger part of that mix.

SyndicateMizzou Podcast: Lori Eggert - Teaching and Research

Fri, 18 Nov 2011 14:57:18 GMT

Last year Dr. Eggert was allowed to design her own class. However, she was already making Introductory Ecology her very own by mining her research for examples and using them to help build her student’s foundational understanding of the subject.

SyndicateMizzou Podcast: Dorina Kosztin - Rewards of Teaching

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 00:34:47 GMT

Although students may not generally speak up to tell her how much they appreciate her classes, Dr. Kosztin receives significant gratification from seeing how her courses change her students’ perspectives on the world.

SyndicateMizzou Podcast: Roy Fox - Teaching Teachers

Sun, 29 Apr 2012 21:36:10 GMT

Dr. Fox discusses what drew him to the field of English Education, and how he has worked to help teachers rediscover their passion for the work they do in and out of the classroom.