Four faculty members who use entirely different techniques in a variety of subjects were honored last week for outstanding teaching by their campus colleagues.
Receiving the Distinguished Teaching Award from the campus division of the Academic Senate were James Baughn, professor of mechanical and aeronautical engineering; Jeannie Darby, professor of civil and environmental engineering; Theodore Foin, professor of environmental studies; and Ronald Olsson, associate professor of computer science.
Established in 1973, the awards are given annually during the spring quarter to as many as four faculty members. Each recipient receives a $500 award, and their departments each receive $250, which may be used in any manner to improve teaching on campus.
His energetic attitude seems to rub off on students and helps create a dynamic learning environment where students are encouraged and inspired to apply themselves. "Perhaps the most significant lesson Professor Baughn teaches is that engineering can be fun," writes a former student.
One of his former graduate students wrote, "Of all the teachers I had in schools as well as life, I feel that Dr. Baughn has had one of the most profound effects on my education and career." Another said, "I have attended three different universities, and I can honestly say that Professor Baughn was the best professor I have ever had."
Baughn has taught mechanical and aeronautical engineering at UC Davis since 1973 and, as a qualified pilot and flight instructor, he has provided his students in aeronautical engineering classes with an exceptional opportunity for hands-on experience. His teaching responsibilities often take him away from the upper-division aeronautical engineering courses and into the larger core courses, where audiences can be more challenging.
There, Baughn uses leaf-blowers, balloons, compressors, hot dogs and soft-boiled eggs to demonstrate the principles of thermodynamics and heat transfer to keep students alert and interested. In class evaluations, students approve of Baughn's methods. "Excellent course," wrote one, "mostly due to the professor, since the material itself isn't very exciting."
Since coming to campus in 1989, Darby has taught a wide variety of courses, but has a special interest in environmental engineering. She has also become involved in many extracurricular educational activities, including assistance with special programs associated with the UC Davis Center for Women in Engineering, volunteer work one morning a week in the elementary program at Birch Lane School, oversight of summer research projects for high-school students, and responsibilities as the department graduate adviser. In the laboratory, while maintaining a strong research program with a sizable group of graduate students, Darby also includes more undergraduate and high school students into her research program than the rest of the department combined.
Much of Darby's success in the classroom originates with her intense interest in the needs of individual students. Former student Dina Del Conte, the College Medal recipient in 1993, has a perspective that has been broadened by graduate work at the California Institute of Technology and employment with an environmental consulting firm.
"Because [Darby] takes the time to get to know each of her students and how each student most effectively learns, she is able to treat them as individuals," Del Conte writes. "She provides more direct assistance to those who need it and offers guidance but less detailed explanations to challenge those who are more able. Not only does she teach the class material, but she teaches people how to learn on their own."
Ecology should be taught with a relatively high degree of skepticism and criticism, Foin believes. Students who are accustomed to accumulating facts, rather than evaluating evidence, can find the study of ecology a frustrating experience.
"He requires that students meet him intellectually halfway," wrote one student. "Some students may resent this approach, feeling that Professor Foin is keeping something from them, keeping secrets. But he is not. He is trying to show that the secrets are out there all the time, in plain view, and the best way to them is through individual student efforts."
Foin has had an enormous impact on the environmental studies program and on the ecology graduate group. He is credited with developing and teaching more courses at each level than any other member of the environmental studies division and perhaps more than any other faculty member at UC Davis.
Comments concerning Foin's impact on the lives and careers of former students come from far and wide--California Florida, Alaska, Japan, Kansas, Scotland, Colorado, Idaho and Montana. Collectively, alumni said, "Professor Foin has provided us with the tools and the standards and the inspiration to guide us for the rest of our lives."
Olsson has taught seven out of the 10 highest rated classes in his department. As chair of the engineering college's undergraduate studies committee, Olsson has been a strong advocate for high educational standards while protecting the welfare of students.
Despite his reputation as a tough teacher who gives demanding classes, Olsson receives high marks and respect from his students for being fair, observant and absolutely intolerant of unacceptable ethical behavior. Olsson sets high standards for his students. "I grade on an absolute scale rather than on a relative scale," he says. "Using an absolute scale means that students compete against my standards, not each other."
Comments reflect the high standards he also sets for himself in the education and welfare of his students, with examples such as: "Absolutely the best teacher I've ever had." "He is the standard by which I judge other professors." "Really pushes me." "This was the hardest class I ever had, and I got tremendous satisfaction from it."
Olsson has influenced teaching beyond his classrooms with a programming language he co-developed, called "SR," and with a book he co-authored about the language. He has developed several preprocessors for SR that provide a useful setting for teaching "distributed computing."
