Congratulations to our colleague, Suzanne Theucks, the 2025 winner of the Cromwell Award for Innovation in Teaching.
Suzanne was recognized at the Birthday Convocation on February 21:
Provost Kim presented the Cromwell Award for Innovation in Teaching to Biology Lab Coordinator and Instructor Suzanne Thuecks, recognizing her transformative work in revamping the teaching of writing in introductory biology labs. Thuecks was lauded for her creation of clear, succinct mini-lessons for students and her development of a feedback system that significantly improved student writing skills while easing the grading workload for instructors.
“Suzanne’s innovative and multifaceted approach to teaching scientific writing in general biology labs has been a boon to our students, instructors, the biology department at large, and for the writing program of the College,” Kim said.
To learn more about the innovative pedagogy Professor Thuecks has developed for teaching writing in the biology lab, you can read research that has been published in this venues:
- 2020. Do the write thing: Eight mini-activities to refine students’ writing. Article 18 in: McMahon K, editor. Tested studies for laboratory teaching. Volume 41. Proceedings of the 41st Conference of the Association for Biology Laboratory Education (ABLE).
- 2019. A hard day’s write: Teaching writing in the lab with a minimum of pain and suffering. Article 53 in: McMahon K, editor. Tested studies for laboratory teaching. Volume 40. Proceedings of the 40th Conference of the Association for Biology Laboratory Education (ABLE).
- 2018. The write stuff: A stations-based activity to teach scientific reading, writing, and revision. Article 18 in: McMahon K, editor. Tested studies for laboratory teaching. Volume 39. Proceedings of the 39th Conference of the Association for Biology Laboratory Education (ABLE).