Faculty Reflections and Stories:

Part of the InTeGrate Mercer University Implementation Program

Team reflection:

Value of Working Collaboratively

One of the greatest benefits of our involvement in the InTeGrate project was the opportunity to work with colleagues from other colleges across the university. Our traditional work often provides few chances for interaction with faculty members outside of our base colleges, so the collaboration encouraged by InTeGrate was very welcome. As a result of our InTeGrate efforts, Penfield and Tift Colleges feel more connected than ever, and we look forward to continuing our collaborative efforts in the future.

Group Experience of Working with InTeGrate Materials

Working with the existing InTeGrate materials was an excellent way to familiarize ourselves and understand the aim and scope of the InTeGrate project. We came together to discuss and analyze the materials to see how they could best fit into our existing courses, and then reached out and recruited other faculty members to help implement the materials as widely as possible. These efforts have resulted in heightened student and faculty awareness of earth conservation issues, and we hope that faculty members continue using these materials going forward.

Faculty Development in Field Trips

Beyond using existing materials, the process of creating new InTeGrate-inspired materials was very enriching. In order to create virtual field trips, the Mercer InTeGrate team took several trips to notable nature sites across the state of Georgia. These trips provided great learning opportunities for ourselves as faculty members, and they highlighted local issues that could be shared with our students and the online community. We look forward to continuing our exploration of the virtual field trip concept with more InTeGrate-inspired lessons.

Individual Faculty Reflections

Ramneet Kaur, Mercer University
SCIE 100, Methods of Scientific Investigation