Former Faculty Fellows & Project Descriptions

Karen High

Professor: Engineering and Science Education

Dr. High’s plan for her research project centers on several items. As her current educational research focuses on current and future STEM faculty development, her research for the Pearce Faculty Fellows program will focus on areas that help faculty incorporate writing and communication into their curriculum. She particularly plans to focus on helping current and future STEM faculty design communication curriculum that addresses accreditation and general education requirements. Additionally, she will be developing a graduate level course for STEM graduate students that will enhance their communication and critical thinking skills. Part of this course will evolve through the development of a partnership campus-wide cohort/faculty learning community on developing graduate level curriculum in STEM communication.

 

Carl Blue

Associate Professor: Graphic Communications

“TWIG: Technical Writing Initiative in Graphic Communications.” A
twig is a slender, organic shoot growing from a branch or stem of a tree or shrub; a twig is also a small branch of a blood vessel or nerve. In slang, twig means to catch on; you either twig something or just twig, i.e., get wise, understand the statement or situation. Dr. Blue’s project is to develop a concise, supplemental technical writing resource in Canvas for graphic communications majors and instructors (and beyond) based on assembled competencies derived through a Delphi Study of responses from academics and industry professionals. This resource is meant to enlighten and encourage student success in Writing In the Disciplines.

Shanna Hirsch poses in front of a natural background and smiles at the camera.Shanna Hirsch

Associate Professor: Education and Human Development

Project ECHO (Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes) is an innovative tele-mentoring and tele-networking model that was developed by the University of New Mexico Health Science Center. In 2021, Clemson University (PI: Shanna Hirsch) became an ECHO replication partner and conducted a pilot study with local educators. Results indicated participants learned new content but also developed a sense of community. Dr. Hirsch’s goal is to create an ECHO for Clemson faculty and staff in higher education. The focus of the ECHO will be designed to support professional communication to enhance graduate education. For information about Project ECHO, visit https://hsc.unm.edu/echo/.

Lesly Temesvari poses in front of a natural background and smiles at the camera.Lesly Temesvari

Alumni Distinguished Professor: Biological Sciences

Dr. Temesvari is collaborating with Tigers ADVANCE to organize a “Picture a Scholar” symposium, which will be held on Clemson’s campus in March 2022. The symposium will highlight women scholars on campus through short talks. There will also be a keynote address by an outside speaker and ample networking opportunities. Dr. Temesvari will also invite and help the symposium speakers create short videos about their scholarship, which will be distributed to middle and high schools.

Lea Jenkins poses in front of a natural background and smiles at the camera.Lea Jenkins

Associate Professor: Mathematical and Statistical Sciences

Increasingly, prospective employers are asking candidates to submit writing samples as part of the interview process. These samples enable employers to differentiate between candidates, and the content can demonstrate the ability of a candidate to grasp difficult concepts and convey information to customers. Dr. Jenkins’ Pearce Faculty Fellows project is to develop effective strategies for teaching Writing In the Disciplines. In particular, the focus of the writing projects is executive summaries, which are an important component of technical reporting requirements. Engineers will be expected to write these summaries quickly; their success will depend, in part, on their ability to use these summaries to communicate a result. Her fellowship term will be spent gathering insight on writing pedagogy and evaluation metrics. She will use this information in real time to create writing assignments, continuously assessing the outcomes with members of the cohort to refine the process for her students. At the end of the term, she will provide insight on ways to incorporate writing as an integral part of mathematics courses in the engineering curriculum.