UTRGV Recipients of the Regents' Outstanding Teaching Award
Dr. Art Brownlow — 20th century student succeeds as 21st century educator
BROWNSVILLE, TEXAS – AUG. 15, 2016 – For Dr. Art Brownlow, UTRGV professor of music, the trumpet isn’t the only instrument important for teaching. Enter the iPad.
This is Brownlow’s way of bringing modern methodologies – including Apple applications like iTunes U, Pia Score and Music Journal – to his courses, especially “flipped courses” like all sections of Music History.
“The problem with the traditional method is that students just sit there listening in class and do nothing,” he said. “Then, they get home to do their homework and they are stumped, because they don’t know how to do it without any direction.”
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Dr. Alex Racelis — Nurturing nature leads UTRGV ecologist Racelis to Regents’ Award
RIO GRANDE VALLEY, TEXAS – AUG. 16, 2016 – As an ecologist and a teacher, Dr. Alexis Racelis wants his students to develop a well-practiced ecological lens on the world.
“An ecologist is trained to be able to see patterns in the natural world, but also to explain them and predict what would happen if things change,” said Racelis, an assistant professor in The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley’s Department of Biology and its School for Earth, Environmental and Marine Sciences – both in the College of Sciences. “I want my students to be equipped with the tools and knowledge to recognize and detect the connections between humans and their environment and also with a spirit of action to apply these tools to their own lives and to society.” Read the full release
Dr. Christine Mathews — Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Awardee Mathews challenges and inspires students
RIO GRANDE VALLEY, TEXAS – AUGUST 17, 2016 – Dr. Christine Mathews, lecturer in the Department of Biology at The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, was torn between pursuing a career in music or her other love – science.
Unable to deny the tug of the family legacy, she chose a life of science.
Barely 30 years old, epidemiologist and classically trained musician Mathews joins an elite group of 60 faculty throughout The University of Texas System’s academic and health institutions being honored this year – one of five UTRGV faculty members – to be a recipient of the 2016 Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Awards. Read the full release
Dr. Timothy Huber — ROTA recipient Huber helps students find true meaning of math
RIO GRANDE VALLEY, TEXAS – AUG. 18, 2016 – Dr. Timothy Huber truly finds the joy in mathematics. It is a passion he shares with his students, who often end up loving a subject that once caused fear and anxiety.
His patience, and a keen ability to personalize material and help students discover the true meaning of math, earned him The UT System Board of Regents’ 2016 Outstanding Teaching Award.
An associate professor in the UTRGV School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences, Huber was among five university faculty members – and among 60 faculty in the UT System’s academic and health institutions – to earn one of the highest and most prestigious awards in the nation that recognizes teaching excellence.
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Dr. Stephen Crown — UTRGV Engineering professor shares love of learning with students
RIO GRANDE VALLEY, TEXAS – AUG. 19, 2016 – There is a maxim by which Dr. Steven Crown and his family live: Love people, and like things.
For Crown, professor of mechanical engineering at UTRGV and director of the Texas Pre-Freshman Engineering Program (TexPREP) at UTRGV, teaching engineering allows him to follow that rule each day.
“This is a helping profession,” he said. “It’s helping society. But I felt a much more direct connection when the focus of my work can be people. That is a better fit for me. The subject is always engineering, but the context is always people. And of course, I still really, really like engineering.”
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