Sperone (Project 1 Co-I) wins WSU Teaching award
Congratulations to F. Gianluca Sperone, Co-I with CLEAR Project 1 (Field Study) and the Data Management & Analytics Core, for being one of the three university-wide winners of the 2023-2024 General Education Teaching award from Wayne State University!
Each year, the Graduate Employees' Organizing Committee (GEOC) recognizes instructors whose teaching demonstrates commitment and excellence in supporting the General Education Program. The GEOC awards outstanding instructors who demonstrate a commitment to the academic mission of the university through collaboration, innovation, excellence, and diversity and inclusion in General Education teaching. Gianluca is an Assistant Professor of Teaching in the Dept. of Environmental Science and Geology.
The award noted: "Mr. Sperone's teaching approach is to help students think about science not as a series of set answers about natural phenomena, but as a continuous process of asking questions, collecting, and analyzing data to answer those questions, and explaining natural phenomena based on evidence. His approach incorporates critical thinking using a story-based narrative that illustrates the progression between lecture topics designed to help students connect major course concepts."
A great example of Gianluca's teaching approach are the Story Maps he designed (with trainee Brendan O'Leary) detailing CLEAR's work on VOC contamination in Detroit, and our research examining the spill of hazardous chemicals in the East Palestine OH train derailment last year. (You can scroll through both interactive StoryMaps below.) Gianluca also co-organized a workshop on data management and analytics last year for CLEAR trainees and researchers.