Lary May - photo by Tom Foley

Although from very different disciplines, professors Lary May and Anthony Starfield, like many fellow award-winning teachers, encourage student interaction, offer innovative assignments, and remember the great teachers who inspired them. May and Starfield are among this year’s recipients of the University’s Distinguished Teaching Awards.

Starfield, a mathematician with accomplishments in many fields, teaches computer modeling techniques in the Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior. "What really attracts me to teaching is how much one learns by teaching," he says. Starfield moved into computer modeling to help make sense of the problem-solving "free for all" created by the advent of computers. "I wanted to be thoughtful in developing the methodology," he continues. "Teaching really brings that out. You have to get it straight in your own mind before you can teach it."

May is a professor of American studies specializing in film and other popular culture media. He was inspired by teachers "who took personal care with their teaching" and made material relevant, he says. "I think students sometimes just go through the motions [in getting a degree]. My effort is to try to break it and show that this stuff is personally meaningful."

Each professor has developed assignments that effectively teach skills and their application. "I used to believe that you gave a good lecture and that was what teaching was about," Starfield says. "[But] modeling is something you almost can’t learn by someone telling you how to do it." Students work in small groups to solve invented case studies, benefiting from their differing academic backgrounds. "Students learn so much from each other, especially explaining their ideas to each other," he says. "There is nothing as valuable as teaching something to learn about it."

May created an "intergenerational interview" assignment in which students ask an older person about their cultural influences. Students then look into the background of what they learn and write about its political and cultural significance, combining several of the skills May wants to impart. "I firmly believe that the way students are going to engage with contemporary history is to see what they have inherited from the past. This seems like the perfect intersection between the personal and the social and political," May says. "Plus, you get some really surprising things that just blow you away.

Anthony Starfield - photo by Tom Foley

Each one is really unique."

While each teacher is gratified by the award, they are more touched by the letters of support from former students that accompanied their nominations. "The award means less to me than the efforts that the students and colleagues put into getting it for me," Starfield says. "I got so much out of the reactions and letters. That was really heartwarming." It also confirms what he has come to realize: "Behind every good mentor is a good mentor. [That] is the thing that gets passed on from generation to generation even more than the textbooks and the research work."

May agrees. "There is a letter in there from a student I had 20 years ago," he says. "To realize you’ve had an influence on someone that has lasted for 20 years is rather staggering."

—Chris Coughlan-Smith

The 2002 Distinguished Teachers
The Distinguished Teaching Awards encompass both the Horace T. Morse–University of Minnesota Alumni Association Award for Outstanding Contributions to Undergraduate Education and the Award for Outstanding Contributions to Postbaccalaureate, Graduate, and Professional Education. The UMAA provides financial support for the awards, which include a salary augmentation to the recipients and a stipend to their department. The alumni association also organizes the annual awards ceremony, which attracts hundreds to the McNamara Alumni Center. This year’s presentation was April 22.

Morse-Alumni Award Recipients
Professor Patricia Bauer, child development
Associate Professor Andrea Berlin, classical and Near Eastern studies
Associate Professor Nancy Carpenter, UM Morris science and mathematics
Associate Professor Tom Isbell, UM Duluth theater
Professor Lary May, American studies
Professor August Nimtz Jr., political science
Associate Professor Leslie Schiff, microbiology
Associate Professor Cathrine Wambach, General College psychology

Graduate-Professional Award Recipients
Professor Peter Carr, chemistry
Professor Hazel Dicken-Garcia, journalism and mass communication
Professor David Hayden, veterinary diagnostic medicine
Professor Paul Iaizzo, anesthesiology
Professor Mary Jo Maynes, history
Associate Professor James Pacala, family practice and community health
Professor Anthony Starfield, ecology, evolution, and behavior
Regents Professor John Sullivan, political science