Dr. Patrick HerakThe Department of Engineering Education's autumn semester Seminar series returned on Friday, October 7, 2016 with a presentation by EED Senior Lecturer, Dr. Patrick Herak. During his talk, entitled Training Days: Inadvertent lessons instructors teach students and vice-versa, Dr. Herak discussed his experiences as an educator in high school and university environments as well as an animal trainer for the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium.
He discussed the various positive and negative reinforcement techniques that exist in the instructor-student relationship as well as as recommendations for optimizing the positive aspects of reinforcement while minimizing the negative ones.
The concept for the series originated with John Demel and Bob Gustafson, now faculty emeriti, and the first seminar was held during winter quarter of 2011. Kathy Harper, Senior Lecturer, served as chair of the series from its inception until the fall of 2016. The seminars have served as a forum for cross-pollination between different groups in the EEIC, now the EED, as well as within the college and university. As the unit has progressed from being an educational center to an academic department, the quantity of research-based work that has been presented in the seminars has steadily increased.
Department of Engineering Education seminars take place on the first Friday of each month. Future presentations are scheduled for Friday, November 4, 2016 and Friday, December 2, 2016. Please visit the EED Seminar Series page for up-to-date information regarding topics and presenters.
