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Faculty Interviews |
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Interview with Jim StohTeaching History 2000-2001 Hydrology, MES Program Recent and Current Work: Saline Valley, in the desert east of the Sierra in California remains the center of things that I do. I have worked in the area for over 20 years on a number of projects. Over the past several years I have been working on puzzling out the relationship between the ground water, soils, salinity, and the spatial patterns of vegetation (primarily shrubs) on the valley floor. I have had a lot of success and fun engaging students in this question by involving them in this work during field trips. Hydrology students have helped me in mapping and investigating ground water distribution. I have always liked puzzles, and a puzzle presented itself when I saw water-needing shrubs there in one of the driest places in North America, indeed an abundance of them locally. Saline Valley is a relatively simple bounded ecological system. At first I thought it was a very simple bounded system, but now it is beginning to get more complex. The more you know, the less simple it gets. I have always liked trying to figure out how the earth was made, that is the big question, and anything having to do with that is worth investigating. Over the years in the valley I have worked on the geological history of the place, figuring out the bedrock geology and the origins of the volcanic rocks. This has involved a lot of geologic mapping, exploring and simply thinking about how the earth was put together. One priority for me now is to try to pull all this material together into a formal report that other people can use. In particular, I think it would be useful to the Park Service that has recently taken over control of the Saline Valley as a part of Death Valley National Park. Geographical Information Systems (GIS) is an area I got into because of the map connection and a ground-swell of interest in it. What I found was that for someone who likes maps and spatial relationships like I have since I was a kid, they really shouldn't allow GIS to be out there. Its like putting drugs in the hands of people who can't resist them. It's is so much fun, it's just crazy, the things you can do. You see me just playing around with GIS all the time. It's a great intellectual toy. GIS has clearly been a good thing for students to learn at Evergreen as a technical system, but we need to really start to integrate the technical skills into thematic and application programs. That is why I am moving toward programs like the Applied Environmental Analysis program and using GIS in Hydrology. As a teacher I use GIS mostly as display tool. It can make more obvious what you should have been able to see without it. In addition, it allows some really interesting, quite easy, simulation and modeling. GIS makes a great "What if?" tool. It allows you to think about and model what happens when you change the parameters of a system. That is the kind of play I do with it in my office all the time. Are there particular authors/artists/thinkers whose work you interested and which you often ask students to examine? Well, there is no particular author or authors. Most of my teaching has been subject driven so the standard text books get used again and again. There are also real prerequisites for the work, also subject driven. I see a set of consistent topics like hydrology, GIS, field work and geomorphology as the center of my work, rather than the point of view of particular people. I really work hard, in hydrology for example, to have students get the numbers right. In GIS I push students to work the software creatively, to go beyond the boundaries of the simple problems. I find it hard, though to get students to interact creatively with the materials in these dominantly one quarter programs. Are there specific areas of interest or issues you want to work on with students in the current year? Mostly their class work in Environmental Analysis, and Hydrology for a few contract students (see below). I do not have a grand academic agenda. Specific Skills, Competence, Technique: Lately I have been doing the numbers thing-quantitative work. I wouldn't say its mathematics, but basic problem solving - applied arithmetic and basic statistical thinking. For many of the students I see this is as important as any other communication skills. This has taken away from some of the effort I used to put into writing. I also teach how to do sufficiently precise field work. This usually requires the use of simple tools like surveying and the creation of space and data. And of course the GIS stuff itself is a skill. One of the things I try to get students to do is to recognize problems in the field and come up with their own questions. What are key qualities you look for in student work? What techniques do you use to assess their work? How do you help students assess their work? I really assess most student work through exams, either big exams or quizzes which I give weekly. In programs like Hydrology or GIS there are usually one or two nasty exams, in the sense that they are long and challenging. I try to base the exams on real world data and try to push the students beyond the sort of plug and chug problem solving. If they do well - great! That really shows that they know the material and can do the work. I also have experimented with a lot of student self assessment through small groups working on problems, discussing their reading of the texts and the like. I need to make this more integral to the student's sense of the work of the program, but it works OK and I'll do it again. I urge students to recognize that they have to be able to communicate their work to someone else. If their colleagues can't understand it, how am I, or someone else, supposed to understand it? I stress clarity. I also have students create a portfolio and get their work organized with occasional written reflection on what and how they are doing. This really works. When students have to hand over their portfolios to each other, they learn the difference between messy ones and useful ones and see how to improve their work. How would you characterize yourself as a teacher? I am a formal teacher with a good sense of humor in the class room. I expect the students to do the work and do it well. They need to really participate. I don't like students who come in late, for instance, I think that shows a lack of interest in the subject. My expectations and what the students see are pretty consistent. My main objective is that I want them to learn something. I am really interested in their developing some mastery of the material. Whether they retain that mastery is up to them, but at least they will have gone through the process of working through an understanding of at least part of a subject. I am a reasonably demanding teacher. Every year there is an issue with a student or two about no credit, so my classes must be some sort of standard, and student's can fail to achieve that standard. What types of students tend to do well with you? Evergreen nerds. No, obviously students who are interested in the subject matter and do it well will do well by me. And, oddly enough, doing it on time is important. Since I have found out that students get into trouble and they get me into trouble when they are not timely. I like students who use their senses: who are able to use touch, sight, taste, smell as ways to gain a sense of the natural world they are trying to understand. I like students who are willing to work physically hard as well as mentally hard. What types of students have a hard time with you? I don't like flaky students. I really don't. Flakes of the sit and absorb school, where some kind of cosmic force is going to come and connect them with their learning. Those are not my kind of student. They quickly learn to avoid my classes. What do your student evaluations say about the way you come across to students? I come across consistently as competent and committed to student's learning. But, some students think I am the best teacher on this campus, some think I should do something else for a living. The student evaluations depend upon how homogenous the class is. If the students have self selected for an upper division class, then I get consistently good evaluations, but also many bland evaluations. One of the things about the upper division students is that they are students who are coming back to do repeat programs with me, thus they know what to expect and are there to learn and be serious students. In more heterogeneous programs student evaluations are across the board. For some I have walked on water at some point while for others I am lower than whale shit. Most of the people who object to me have real stylistic differences, like I am not "Evergreen" or flaky enough to suit them. Expectations about Contracts, Internships, and Evaluations.
My view on contracts is if I don't know the student, and if they have not worked with me previously and if they do not have something akin to a really good special project, internship, or small piece or research as a senior research project, no deal - no contract, even if it is interesting. Here's an example of contract work that will fly is this fall. I have a group of students who will look at the factors involved in developing an artificial wetland on campus. It's a complex coherent restoration project and I know all the students. What information do you want to see when a person comes to look for a contract? I want to see a real plan for a project. I don't like students to come and say I just want to learn about x. If that is what they want they should take a course first, or turn that interest into a real project or activity they can do. Interview by Matt Smith |
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