The CTE-Lilly Fellows initiated the annual departmental award in 1995 to recognize new enhancements to undergraduate teaching.

The award is given to departments, colleges, programs and other groups of collaborators, and it honors innovations begun in very recent years.

This year's award will be given to two programs, which are the efforts of three groups, The Biological Sciences Program, in collaboration with the Department of Mathematics, and the Department of Environmental Science and Technology. Each program will receive a $2,500.00 prize.

I. Calculus for Life Sciences: MATH130/131 for Biological Sciences majors, a joint project of the Mathematics Department and the Biological Sciences Program

This course, in which students learn mathematics from a biological perspective, is the product of shared convictions about effective teaching. Faculty, post-docs, and graduate students from both departments worked together to create this innovative and integrative course.

The Lilly Fellows were particularly impressed with the course's interdisciplinary collaboration. This exemplary initiative demonstrates a visionary approach capable of significantly transforming undergraduate education in biological sciences. Students will almost certainly identify lasting and useful connections between mathematics and their chosen emphases of study as a result of this new program. The Fellows also recognize the wisdom of sharing course development among outstanding faculty and believe that this will lead to a sustainable program.

II. The Department of Environmental Science and Technology

ENST was initiated in 2006, and began offering its undergraduate major in fall 2008. This department connects a variety of approaches to the study of the environment in ways that offer students the best of the disciplines as they engage in study of ongoing and emerging environmental problems.

The Lilly Fellows celebrate this program’s innovative and integrative approach to undergraduate learning. Its four concentrations--Ecological Technology Design, Environmental Health, Soil and Watershed Science, and Natural Resources Management -- take a holistic approach to varying emphases while focusing study in thoughtful ways. As a collaboration among approaches to environmental science it is a hallmark of forward-thinking and comprehensive education, and the Environmental Science and Technology major will almost certainly produce graduates capable of solving problems in critical capacities.