2022 Patsy J. Mellott Teaching Innovation Award
Written By: Rebecca Hoffa, rhoffa@purdue.edu
Mark Wilson
Mark Wilson, clinical assistant professor in the School of Health Sciences (HSCI) and director of the biomedical health sciences undergraduate program, is the 2022 recipient of the Patsy J. Mellott Teaching Innovation Award. Established by College of Health and Human Sciences (HHS) alumna Patsy Mellott, the award supports HHS faculty who demonstrate their excellence and leadership as teachers by proposing significant innovations to enhance the quality of HHS educational programs.
Wilson will apply the award funds toward costs associated with introducing enhanced, hands-on lab activities to the new HSCI 33400 (Lung Physiology and Medicine) and HSCI 33500 (Heart Physiology and Medicine) courses within the biomedical health sciences major. These courses, which Wilson developed, explore the effects major diseases can have on the function and structure of the heart and the lungs, which is an important topic in health professional schools, such as medical school and physician assistant school.
Currently the courses utilize a program that offers online activities to reinforce the courses’ concepts, but replacing the online program with hands-on lab activities will allow students to work with scientific instruments to collect real-time, health-related data and develop skills that are critical in professional school and healthcare careers. In the lung physiology course, students will conduct pulmonary function tests, which noninvasively show how well the lungs are working; likewise, in the heart physiology courses, students will obtain an electrocardiogram (ECG) to record the electrical signals of the heart.
After participating in these activities, students will complete an online lab report to assess their learning, which will allow Wilson to compare student outcomes across the online activities and the hands-on labs.
The Patsy J. Mellott Teaching Innovation Award provides up to $2,500 for one year to individual or small groups of HHS faculty for a wide variety of innovative projects, including but not limited to the design of new courses, the development of new models for teaching existing courses, the creation of new curricula and the purchase of equipment to enrich students’ learning in a course or set of courses.
For more information, please contact Mark Wilson or Tom Berndt.
- Mark Wilson, clinical assistant professor, School of Health Sciences, wilso774@purdue.edu.
- Tom Berndt, senior associate dean for academic affairs and administration, College of Health and Human Sciences, berndt@purdue.edu.