Scott Bierman, Dean of the College

Michael McNally, Associate Professor of Religion; and Mary Savina, McBride Professor of Geology and Environmental Studies, Director of Archaeology

Stacy Beckwith, Associate Professor of Hebrew; Jose Cerna-Bazan, Professor of Spanish; and Laura Goering, Professor of Russian

Eric Egge, Assistant Professor of Mathematics; and Stephen Parker, Visiting Assistant Professor of Physics

Have you ever wondered whether you could get text-messaging technology to work for you in the classroom (rather than against you)? We'll describe how math and science professors at Carleton and around the country are doing just that, by using "clickers" (formally, classroom response systems) to facilitate peer instruction.

Greg Marfleet, Assistant Professor of Political Science

Why do political leaders make the sometimes-disastrous decisions they do? One approach to this question focuses on the advisory systems and small-group process that characterize elite decision making. While concepts like 'groupthink' are often applied to explain specific cases, comprehensive models of group decision making that incorporate factors such as leadership style, pressure for conformity, status differences and informal networks among members are under-developed.

Advances in computer-based modeling techniques, specifically agent-based modeling, may hold the promise of building bottom-up 'virtual groups' that facilitate explorations of how antecedent conditions and group processes combine to impact decisions. This highly interdisciplinary project marries insights from political science, social psychology and organizational sociology with the 'hard-science' methodology of complex adaptive systems.

Milo Schield, Professor, Department of Business Administration, Augsburg Colelge

Milo Schield discusses research he has been doing on how numbers are represented in the popular media. In addition, he addresses the implications of his findings for efforts to prepare students to be critical consumers of numbers in the news. He's particularly interested in discussing whether we should embed numeracy in courses across the curriculum or in dedicated quantitative literacy courses.

David Wiles, Associate Professor of Theater

Professor David Wiles brings his professional theatrical training to a session that combines a discussion of the basic issues involved in creating an engaged classroom, with hands-on work on verbal communication that the audience should find simple, accessible, repeatable and difference making.