Escaping 'Grading Jail' while Improving Critical Thinking in Complex Systems

Abstract

<p>Kate Gilbert and Joey Talbert were dissatisfied. Coming from Industry into academics, they knew employers were looking for critical thinkers who understood food systems intimately and could connect the dots to problem solve production issues. They were not sure if their 400 level lab course achieved that – so they tried ThinkSpace.</p> <p>This presentation addresses a fundamental tug-of-war that all instructors face – how can we make our courses more thought provoking for the students without sentencing ourselves to grading jail? <a href="http://fshn.hs.iastate.edu/directory/profile.php?u=kgilbert&embedded=true"><strong>Kate Gilbert</strong></a><strong> and </strong><a href="http://fshn.hs.iastate.edu/directory/profile.php?u=jotalber&embedded=true"><strong>Joey Talbert</strong> </a>from FSHN talk to us about the process that went into rethinking their approach and show us the modules they designed in ThinkSpace to make labs more substantive and post labs more applied – while still staying ahead in the grading game.</p>