{"id":19326,"date":"2016-11-07T08:59:38","date_gmt":"2016-11-07T13:59:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/carleton.ca\/edc\/?p=19326"},"modified":"2021-08-13T10:11:27","modified_gmt":"2021-08-13T14:11:27","slug":"going-beyond-biology-spotlight-claudia-buttera","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/tls\/2016\/going-beyond-biology-spotlight-claudia-buttera\/","title":{"rendered":"Going beyond biology: Spotlight on Claudia Buttera"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Cassandra Hendry, TLS Staff Writer <\/em><\/p>\n

For the 2016 winner of Carleton\u2019s Excellence in Learning Support Award, you would expect a strong dedication to student learning, and that\u2019s exactly what Claudia Buttera brings to the table.<\/p>\n

Buttera, who is a lab co-ordinator with the Department of Biology, is intimately familiar with excellence; in 2014, she was one of three Carleton winners of the prestigious Capital Educators\u2019 Award. Her award-winning philosophy of teaching is simple: foster student engagement in unexpected ways.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat works best is to make connections with disciplines that are not plant material-based, especially for those students who aren\u2019t interested,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

For Buttera, this manifested itself clearly in a student who she says seemed completely disinterested in the lab, one who would only come in to do his work and avoid talking with others. But when Buttera spoke about the connection between biology and architecture and engineering, the student perked up and would jump into the class conversation with enthusiasm.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe important thing to remember is that just because you\u2019re talking about a certain topic, it doesn\u2019t mean you shouldn\u2019t or can\u2019t relate it to something else that would be much more interesting or important to another person,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Buttera instills this philosophy in her teaching assistants when she runs training sessions that are aptly named \u2018Curiosity.\u2019 In many math- and science-based courses like biology, she says, the students aren\u2019t always registered because they want to be. That\u2019s why it\u2019s the lab co-ordinator and TAs\u2019 jobs to keep students engaged with the material.<\/p>\n

Finding out what interests students personally isn\u2019t always obvious, so Buttera and her TAs try to connect with students through one-on-one and group conversations to develop strong learning relationships. That way, curiosity can flourish.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Biology labs] are all mandatory and very scripted. You have a protocol you have to follow. Curiosity and creativity aren\u2019t usually obvious things related to science labs, but ultimately they have to be,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we\u2019re not teaching students to become that way, how can we automatically expect them to go from recipe followers to these creative individuals when they\u2019re done?\u201d<\/p>\n

One of the ways Buttera achieves this is through her emphasis on helping students think about how they can use the skills learned in class for their own personal career or educational goals.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaking them aware of those things early on will increase the value of the course for them. They\u2019re more invested because they\u2019re looking for what it is that they\u2019re doing here that they can take away.\u201d<\/p>\n

What techniques do you use to increase engagement in your courses? How do you show your students links between the real world and the classroom? Leave a comment below and let us know your techniques.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Cassandra Hendry, TLS Staff Writer For the 2016 winner of Carleton\u2019s Excellence in Learning Support Award, you would expect a strong dedication to student learning, and that\u2019s exactly what Claudia Buttera brings to the table. Buttera, who is a lab co-ordinator with the Department of Biology, is intimately familiar with excellence; in 2014, she […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[577],"yoast_head":"\nGoing beyond biology: Spotlight on Claudia Buttera - 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