SPEAKER: Libby Indermaur

DATE: February 10, 2025 | TIME: 9:10 – 10:05 am

LOCATION: 244 Kottman Hall (Columbus), 203 Selby Hall (Wooster)

For more information, contact Bonello.2@osu.edu and torres.704@osu.edu

Prison can be an unlikely learning environment. Teaching there was daunting but profoundly meaningful for me. As a PhD candidate in Plant Pathology, I wanted to test my interest in teaching. I joined Professor Emeritus Bill Fry as a teaching assistant for his Spring 2024 course PLSCI 2225: Healthy Plants, Healthy Planet, Healthy People through the Cornell Prison Education Program. We met five incarcerated students once a week in the Cayuga Correctional  Facility—a men’s prison in Moravia, NY. Our extremely limited classroom had no PowerPoint, no samples, no internet—only a chalkboard, textbook, printouts, and three hours to convince students that plant pathogens are real and worth their time. Students began with no subject vocabulary and by our final class should have written a convincing management plan for five diseases of their chosen crop. The students applied themselves, wondering about and interrogating the material. In response, I interrogated and clarified my own understanding of the subject. I am now committed to teaching and passionate about using plant pathology in even the most limited classroom. I will describe how one student wanted to share his paper on peach diseases with his mother, who is a master gardener, and his motivation for enrolling. I will share how, in my experience, effective teaching requires reaching across divides of difference. Finally, I will share how meaningful unlikely classrooms can be for students, whether they are learning the material or teaching it.

Make sure you RSVP with the CLSE and the hosting unit! 

·      RSVP for the workshop with the CLSE here by clicking “RSVP” in the upper right corner. If you decide not to attend, please “Cancel RSVP”. 

·      Also RSVP with the hosting unit (if other than the CLSE) using the event webpage linked above. 

 

Following the workshop, email Toacca Roberts (.2384) to confirm your attendance for the full event time. If you were not able to attend the full event, email Toacca Roberts to discuss the possibility of 5001 course points.