When James Martin launches his lessons for his “Principles of Habitat” class, a course all wildlife majors at the Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources have to take, it’s fairly straightforward. It covers topics such as animal nutrition and plants, says Martin, and is pretty hands-on. Even students who come into the class not looking forward to learning about plants leave with a love for them. “So, I have a sneak attack work to my advantage,” he adds. But another class the associate professor teaches, “Conservation Decision-making,” is a bit of a harder sell—it’s more abstract and requires more critical thinking from the students. Nevertheless, Martin says, students finish the semester with a deeper understanding and appreciation of the human impacts on the natural world. The two classes, so different in nature but achieving similar outcomes for students, are examples of why Martin is the recipient of this year’s Herrick Superior Teaching Award. It’s among a collection of faculty awards given each year highlighting the expertise and depth of knowledge among Warnell’s professors. For Martin, one thread that connects the two courses is in the way he goes about teaching them. He often uses a “flipped” classroom model, a way of teaching that delivers content to students in advance of the class—for example, readings or videos to explain the concepts—and then turns the lecture time into a “lab” of sorts, putting the new concepts to work. “I hate constantly lecturing. Instead, I do a lot of flipped classrooms,” he says. “You can do more of the things you do in traditional labs, but you can do it in a lecture. So, when I have them in front of me, we’re working on something more hands-on.” While there is no template for teaching in higher education, Martin says he draws from professors from his own time in college. He also thinks it’s the responsibility of faculty members to be more adaptable in their approach to teaching, adjusting to how today’s students take in information. By turning what would be a sedentary lecture into an impromptu lab, he says, it appeals to the current mind-set of most students today, which is in constant motion. “So, them sitting in one spot for 50 minutes and them listening to you rattle off about things without them being actively engaged, I don’t think that model works very well anymore.” Associated Personnel: Dr. James Martin
