CONWAY, Ark. (September 1, 2016) – Hendrix College biology professor Dr. Laura MacDonald ’09 was recently featured on the
American Society for Microbiology’s blog.
The article focuses on MacDonald’s passion for undergraduate teaching.
“Students come to us at 17-18 years old as typical students and over the next four years, you can see the progression…they are vastly different people than they were four years ago,” she said in the article.
The article also describes a collaboration between MacDonald and a colleague at another institution to implement an improvisational technique called “Yes, and…” in their classrooms. According to the article, the method “involves students reviewing major topics presented by the
instructor, and taking turns adding to a fundamental statement about a course concept, one sentence at a time.” The technique is used to help students review the course material and make connections between the curricula in different courses.
MacDonald and her colleague co-wrote an article about the method. The article will be published in December in the
Journal of Microbiology & Biology Education.
Read the full article “A Passion for Teaching Undergraduates: How One Educator Brought Improv to the Classroom”
here.
After graduating from Hendrix in 2009 with a B.A. in biochemistry and molecular biology, MacDonald went on to complete her Ph.D. in microbiology and immunology at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in 2014.
About
Hendrix College
Hendrix College is a private liberal arts college in Conway, Arkansas. Founded in 1876 and affiliated with the United Methodist Church since 1884, Hendrix is featured in Colleges
That Change Lives: 40 Schools That Will Change the Way You Think about Colleges and is nationally recognized in numerous college guides, lists, and rankings for academic quality, community, innovation, and value. For more information, visit
www.hendrix.edu.