Integrated Case Studies as a Teaching and Learning Tool: Putting "Faces and Places" on Concepts in Environmental Science
Explore the effective use of environmental science case studies in this webinar, which draws on 20+ years of experience to help you enhance student engagement through relatable, real-world stories.
Jay Withgott, author, researcher, instructor
Matt Laposata, author, researcher, instructor, Kennesaw State University
Environmental Science is an academic discipline with extensive social and cultural relevance that students can connect directly to their everyday lives. For this reason, case studies featuring relatable stories of real people and real places offer an effective means of engaging students, and the use of case studies in environmental science is a popular approach with many instructors. But not all case studies are equally effective, and in this webinar we will (a) share the lessons learned in more than 20 years of authoring textbooks with a central focus on case studies, (b) highlight the approaches used in our texts to maximally engage students with case studies, and (c) encourage attendees to share engaging case study topics and classroom strategies from their personal teaching.
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About the speakers
Jay Withgott, author, researcher, instructor
Jay Withgott has authored Essential Environment as well as its parent volume, Environment: The Science behind the Stories, since their inception. In dedicating himself to these books, he works to keep abreast of a diverse and rapidly changing field and continually seeks to develop new and better ways to help today’s students learn environmental science. As a researcher, Jay has published scientific papers in ecology, evolution, animal behavior, and conservation biology in journals ranging from Evolution to Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. As an instructor, he has taught university lab courses in ecology and other disciplines. As a science writer, he has authored articles for numerous journals and magazines including Science, New Scientist, BioScience, Smithsonian, and Natural History. By combining his scientific training with prior experience as a newspaper reporter and editor, he strives to make science accessible and engaging for general audiences. Jay holds degrees from Yale University, the University of Arkansas, and the University of Arizona. Jay lives with his wife, biologist Susan Masta, in Portland, Oregon.
Matt Laposata, author, researcher, instructor, Kennesaw State University
Matthew Laposata is a professor of environmental science at Kennesaw State University (KSU). He holds a bachelor’s degree in biology education from Indiana University of Pennsylvania, a master’s degree in biology from Bowling Green State University, and a doctorate in ecology from The Pennsylvania State University. Matt is the coordinator of KSU’s two-semester general education science sequence titled Science, Society, and the Environment, which enrolls over 5000 students per year. He focuses exclusively on introductory environmental science courses and has enjoyed teaching and interacting with thousands of nonscience majors during his career. He is an active scholar in environmental science education and has received grants from state, federal, and private sources to develop and evaluate innovative curricular materials. His scholarly work has received numerous awards, including the Georgia Board of Regents’ highest award for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. Matt, his wife Lisa, and his family reside in suburban Atlanta.