Two nominated for UW System teaching recognition

Jake Blanchard, associate professor of engineering physics and Cyrena Pondrom, professor of English and women’s studies, have been nominated from UW–Madison for UW System teaching awards.

Helping students negotiate problems they’ll run into as professional engineers is Blanchard’s specialty. During the current semester, he’s instructing undergraduates in a problem-solving course; he also teaches a class in the Master of Engineering in Professional Practice, an online master’s degree program for professional engineers. In both of his courses, Blanchard seeks to motivate his students by using case studies, which will apply directly to the work students will do on the job.

“There is a tendency to solve problems in the abstract, and students find it difficult to see how solving an equation — even one I know will have practical value for them — will help them as engineers. Instead, I’ll have them design a cooling device for a computer chip or a set of monkey bars for a playground. They still have to solve the same equations, but they get the chance to see the relevance of those equations.

“In the graduate courses, students usually choose a topic that’s been nagging at them and that they can solve using techniques we’ve learned in class. This has been very effective, and in some cases has produced tools in common use in the workplace,” he says.

Pondrom, meanwhile, emphasizes the content of each piece studied, whether the course is a small graduate seminar on avant garde literature, an undergraduate survey of modern American poets, or a live statewide call-in radio broadcast on contemporary writing. She addresses “what basic issues are involved, what values are proposed or challenged, what concepts of order or disorder are implied.”

To accomplish this complicated intellectual task, she makes use of a number of teaching strategies, from e-mail and Web assignments to small group presentations of T.S. Eliot excerpts. During nearly 38 years in the UW–Madison Department of English and Women’s Studies Program, Pondrom also has brought innovation to the many administrative duties she has assumed. As assistant chancellor and vice chancellor for personnel and analysis in the 1970s, she was instrumental in designing opportunities on campus for women and minorities, and she established policies and procedure for all kinds of academic and nonacademic appointments.

Pondrom’s entire career has been devoted to helping others reach their full potential. “I am delighted when students becomes really intellectually excited about what they are learning — the most rewarding aspect of my teaching is seeing my students grow into intellectual peers. I am especially pleased when they do such good work that they qualify for awards or when scholarly journals publish papers they’ve done for me,” she says.

These awards carry a $5,000 stipend. The UW System will announce its award winners later this year. Winners will be honored a ceremony and reception this fall.