Flora Kielland '16 turned her lecture notes into a cartoon format. Her professor, David Gondek, is now offering his students the option of putting together a children's book to illustrate complicated science problems.
Flora Kielland '16 turned her lecture notes into a cartoon format. Her professor, David Gondek, is now offering his students the option of putting together a children's book to illustrate complicated science problems.
David Gondek, associate professor of biology at Ithaca College, has two main teaching goals this semester:
“Covid-19 is a major challenge, but it is something we can figure out how to deal with by thinking creatively.”
David Gondek, associate professor of biology
Gondek is confident he has come up with the remote teaching plan to achieve both of these goals. He’s using a “choose your own adventure” type of practice in his virtual classes that matches assessment options to students’ strengths in showing what they’ve learned. As a result his students will be given more flexibility and be able to choose how they present their progress; whether it’s taking a test or submitting an essay or presentation. His students can also choose to create a public service announcement as a way of demonstrating their understanding of their coursework. In addition, Gondek is giving his students in the Plagues and People class the option of putting together fully illustrated children’s books that will present complicated science problems in an easy to comprehend format.
David Gondek, Associate Professor of Biology
Gondek, who has taught at IC since 2011, plans to take full advantage of Zoom technology to break out his classes into smaller groups to encourage student discussions, debates and participation. He’s particularly excited about teaching the Plagues and People course for the first time ever at the college. The timely course, as explained by Gondek, will be a blend of history and biology and focus on how plagues throughout recorded human history — from ancient pandemics right up to Covid-19 — have made a social, political and economic impact on populations.
“As scientists we face challenges and then are asked to go in and fix the problem. Covid-19 is a major challenge, but it is something we can figure out how to deal with by thinking creatively,” says Gondek, who is on the college's 17-member Public Health Task Force, which includes a 6-member Health and Safety Advisory Group, of which he is also a member.