The faculty and academic staff of Lyman Briggs College take a scholarly approach to the college's mission of teaching and advising students. Grant-funded research, peer-reviewed publications, and participation in local and national education-related workshops keep them at the forefront of pedagogical developments.

University Awards for Teaching, Advising, and Engagement:

MSU Excellence in Diversity Awards
   • 2013 Professor Cori Fata-Hartley, Sustained Effort towards Excellence in Diversity
   • 2012 Lyman Briggs College, Excellent Progress toward Advancing Diversity within Community

MSU Alumni Club of Mid-Michigan Quality of Undergraduate Teaching Award:
   • 2013 Prof. Aklilu Zeleke, LBC mathematics
   • 2010 Prof. Robert LaDuca, LBC chemistry
   • 2007 Prof. Robert Shelton, LBC history, philosophy, and sociology of science

MSU Teacher-Scholar Award
   • 2012 Prof. Kendra Cheruvelil, LBC biology
   • 2010 Prof. John Waller, LBC history, philosophy, and sociology of science
   • 2009 Prof. Aaron McCright, LBC history, philosophy, and sociology of science
   • 2008 Prof. Gerd Kortemeyer, LBC physics
   • 2001 Prof. Douglas Luckie, LBC biology

MSU Lilly Teaching Fellow
   • 2013-14 Prof. Sean Valles, LBC history, philosophy, and sociology of science
   • 2012-13 Prof. Georgina Montgomery, LBC history, philosophy, and sociology of science
   • 2011-12 Prof. Brian O'Shea, LBC physics
   • 2009-10 Prof. Kendra Cheruvelil, LBC biology
   • 2008-09 Prof. Aaron McCright, LBC history, philosophy, and sociology of science
   • 2006-07 Prof. Cori Fata-Hartley, LBC biology
   • 1999-00 Prof. Douglas Luckie, LBC biology

MSU Distinguished Faculty Award
   • 2011 Prof. Robert Pennock, LBC history, philosophy, and sociology of science

MSU Distinguished Academic Staff Award
   • 2012 Ms. Hanni Nichols, LBC mathematics

MSU Curricular Service-Learning and Civic Engagement Award
   • 2012 Prof. Ryan Sweeder, LBC chemistry and Dr. Philip Strong, LBC assistant dean
   • 2011 Prof. Douglas Luckie, LBC biology
   • 2010 Prof. Kendra Cheruvelil and Prof. Cori Fata-Hartley, LBC biology
   • 2009 Prof. Aaron McCright, LBC history, philosophy, and sociology of science
   • 2008 Mr. Kent Workman, LBC advising

MSU John K. Hudzik Emerging Leader Award for Advancing International Studies and Programs
   • 2012 Dr. Naoko Wake, LBC history, philosophy, and sociology of science

MSU Award for Outstanding Service to Study Abroad
   • 2012 Dr. Richard Bellon, LBC history, philosophy, and sociology of science
   • 2005 Dr. Gerald Urquhart, LBC biology

MSU Honors College Award for Distinguished Contributions to Honors Students
   • 2011 Prof. M. Teresa Tavormina, LBC Assistant Dean

MSU Excellence in Teaching Citation
   • 2011 Ms. Lissy Goralnik, LBC graduate teaching assistant, doctoral candidate in Fisheries and Wildlife
   • 2009 Ms. Alison Reiheld, LBC graduate teaching assistant, doctoral candidate in Philosophy

MSU Faculty Emeriti Association “Outstanding Contributions by an Individual” Award
   • 2011 Prof. Walter Benenson, LBC physics

Research-validated Pedagogy:

LBC faculty are engaged in a long-term effort to strengthen the core STEM courses by adopting research-validated educational techniques that help students acquire expert-level thinking skills. Examples include concept mapping linked to question creation by students, transformation of recitations into hands-on workshops, and incorporation of inquiry-based labs that stress experimental design as well as lab techniques.

LBC faculty of all disciplines who are engaging in research on or dissemination of effective pedagogy continue to be recognized and supported by MSU's Lilly Teaching Fellows program and external programs such as The Biology Scholars Program and the New Physics & Astronomy Faculty Workshops. Lyman Briggs faculty also serve on the MSU Faculty Advisory Boards of the Lilly Fellows program and the Center for the Integration of Research, Teaching and Learning (CIRTL).

Bridging the Two Cultures

Lyman Briggs College was founded with the mission of bridging what author C.P. Snow famously called the "Two Cultures" of the sciences and humanities. In early years, the introductory HPS (history, philosophy, and sociology of science) class was even called "Third Culture Rhetoric"; the HPS classes continue to be a crucial component of the liberal science education provided to Briggs students. In May 2009, LBC co-sponsored a conference "Science & Liberal Education", marking the 50th anniversary of Snow's "Two Cultures" lecture and reflecting on progress in realizing a Third Culture. The LBC community continues to actively build bridges among the varied STEM and HPS elements of the college's culture and curriculum. Some faculty are auditing entire Briggs courses in other fields in order to assess opportunities for highlighting cross-disciplinary connections in their own classes. Another increasingly popular path is the team-teaching of linked courses by STEM and HPS faculty, either during the academic year or as part of a summertime study abroad program. Many faculty are involved in an NSF-funded project Bridging the Disciplines through Authentic Inquiry and Discourse (BRAID), that studies the impact on student learning of educational modules interconnecting courses in separate disciplines or suites of STEM and HPS courses taught as an inter-related whole. Briggs faculty, staff, and students are also key participant in three cross-college projects that place science in broader context: the specialization on Science, Technology, the Environment and Public Policy (STEPPS), the 21st Century Chautauqua on Personal and Social Responsibility (Chautauqua), and the Residential Semester at Kellogg Biological Station (ROKS).

Recent Grants for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning:

Society for the Study of Evolution, (Smith, James), Science Supper: Bringing Together mid-Michigan High School Biology Teachers and Michigan State University Evolution Researchers and Educators $800

National Science Foundation, (Gerd Kortemeyer, Julie Libarkin (PI, Lead), Collaborator Research: Community development of an expanded Geoscience Concept Inventory: A webcenter for question generation, validation and online testing $333,048

National Science Foundation, (Doug Luckie), C-TOOLS supplement request to NSF for a funded extension of the project into 2007 to develop a cycel mapping system apporach to support a novel learning findings using concept maps in geoplogy by Duncan Sibley at MSU $32,000

National Science Foundation, (Doug Luckie, Ryan Sweeder), BRAID: Bridging the Disciplines with Authentic Inquiry & Discourse $149,976

Recent Publications on the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning:
Coming soon...