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U**W-Manitowoc’s Van Slooten Named Teaching Fellow**
Jessica Van Slooten, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of English and Women’s Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Manitowoc, has been named a 2011-12 Wisconsin Teaching Fellow. She is one of two UW Colleges faculty members selected by the UW System Office of Professional and Instructional Development (OPID) for this honor. Van Slooten was selected based on her excellence in teaching, her demonstrated success in sharing teaching and learning innovations, and her record of campus leadership on issues of teaching and learning. The Wisconsin Teaching Fellows program provides participants with training and funding to develop research projects based on teaching methods and innovations. Van Slooten will complete a year-long teaching/learning project, after which she will share the results with colleagues. She will serve as a model and mentor to colleagues across the UW-System, leading efforts to advance the practice of teaching through scholarly inquiry into student learning. She will attend various OPID sponsored events throughout the year including seminars, Faculty College and a summer workshop. Her project, titled “Blogging Across the Disciplines,” will study the impact and meaningfulness of using blog assignments, which she currently uses in her courses. She plans to first study the possibility of implementing blogs as ways of encouraging disciplinary thinking, taking into consideration the media itself, as well as how it’s integrated into the class. Van Slooten also plans to create a model lesson and a mode of assessment based upon her research and encourage other instructors to include blogging as an important course assignment. Van Slooten has taught English and Women’s Studies at UW-Manitowoc since 2007. She holds a bachelor’s degree from Alma College, a master’s degree from Michigan State University, and a doctorate from Auburn University. She is a native of Holland, Michigan and a graduate of West Ottawa High School.

** Communit **** y **** Profiles ** 

by: Paul Nessman

Each month, //The Devil’s Advocate// will feature a profile of a member of our campus community, both faculty and staff. The stories will include a little background information about who the people are that help to make our University run as a cohesive family-like unit.

The first personality featured is a friendly face that you have undoubtedly seen around campus on a daily basis. While he likes to remain out of the limelight, low-key and behind the scenes, he takes his job quite seriously and is very good at what he does. He attributes the hard work and dedication to his job as a simple and fundamental facet of his up-bringing. Phil Walters is one of the most charming and approachable individuals that you would ever have the good fortune to meet. He is always available with some useful advice, a handy suggestion and even a joke or two. But what really makes Walters tick is the the pride that he takes in the fact that he plays an integral role in keeping our campus community running smoothly. He will be the first to admit that he is not high up on the corporate totem pole, but he has a keen awareness that there are no small or menial jobs when it comes to the ultimate goal of keeping our facility running smoothly, cohesively and productively.

**Name:** Philip J. Walters **Occupation:** HVAC (Heating, Ventilation, Air-Conditioning) Specialist-Advanced **Date of birth:** April 1956 **Place of birth:** Manitowoc, Wisconsin **Age:** 54 **Now resides in:** Manitowoc, Wisconsin **Family:** Married with two daughters **Ethnic background:** German

Phil Walters works as a maintenance mechanic here on campus at the UW-Manitowoc and has been here since 2004. Walters is married to Leanne and they have two daughters, Emily and Lydia, who are 13 and 15 years old, respectively. He was born and raised by his parents Ernie and Mary Anne here in Manitowoc where he went to Sacred Heart Catholic grade school and graduated from Lincoln High School in 1974. After that, Walters said, “I went on to school at LTC and graduated with a degree in auto mechanics. I then served on the LTC Advisory Committee where I was a member for 23 years.”

The things in life that are the most important to Phil are being and doing the best that you can in whatever it is you decide to do. “Freedom, to me, is being able to do what you want to do as long as nobody gets hurt. Accept your place in life and do the very best that you can,” Walters said. He believes that there are little lessons to be learned every day and that education is a life-long process. He loves to read and to do research on a variety of topics. He has had an interest in education and learning ever since a nun spoke on the topic of the infinity of the universe when he was in the 5th grade.

Walters’s most proud accomplishment was when he quit smoking about 18 years ago in 1991. His most profound experience in life was when he had angioplasty surgery with stent placement in his heart. He realizes now that had he not quit smoking when he did, he quite possibly could have had a fatal heart attack, which makes him that much more grateful to be alive today.

Walters is looking forward to retiring in 10 to 12 years but plans to stay active in the learning community, sharing his talents and experience. The only regrets that he has in life are the “stupid choices and decisions” that he made in his youth which resulted in offending or disappointing other people. “The only other regret I have,” Walters said, “is the possibility that I may have, in some way, had a negative impact on others by not practicing more patience and understanding. If I could, I would go back and neutralize any negativity that I might have created.”

Currently, Walters is a member of the Search and Screen Committee that is responsible for choosing the University’s next permanent Campus Dean and CEO. This committee is comprised of a member from faculty, staff, administration, advisors and students. Walters said he looks at this opportunity as an interesting learning experience and is excited about the prospect of being a part of UW-Manitowoc’s future in such a way. He put it this way, “How often do you get a chance to hire your own boss?”

Walters would like to be remembered as being fair and honest and that he always did his best at whatever he did. He said he hopes that he will have instilled in his daughters the importance of having faith in their abilities, the desire to achieve more and the responsibility to accept the consequences of their actions. “Always do your best, Walters said; “What you do does have an impact on others, whether you realize it or not.” * Another friendly face that you may have seen around campus hanging out with the maintenance crew is Kevin Wargin. He is filling in here as a general maintenance assistant on campus on a temporary basis while the head of the department, Dave Grunke, is absent on medical leave. Please feel free to stop Kevin in the hallway and say “hi” and welcome him to our campus community.

Valders biology students, UW-Manitowoc collaborate  Zebra fish focus of joint research project

** Jamie Leist, right, a sophomore biology major at the University of  ** ** Wisconsin-Manitowoc, takes a reading of the water temperature in a  ** ** petri dish containing five zebra fish at Valders High School. Assisting ** ** is Emily Menza, a sophomore at Valders High School. Observing in the ** ** background are Valders sophomore Alyx Waniger, left, and UW-  ** ** Manitowoc biology major Joseph Weber. Valders High School is ** ** collaborating with UW-Manitowoc and UW-Stout on a research  ** **  project involving zebra fish. (Sue Pischke/HTR)  ** VALDERS — Science classes typically involve lab work, but Biology I students at Valders High School, primarily sophomores, are going beyond a normal classroom lab experience. They're helping students from the University of Wisconsin-Manitowoc with a r search project involving zebra fish. We are trying to raise them for the center to study," said science teacher Dolores Holl. Zebra fish are simple vertebrates that are used in genetic studies and research on new medicines, she said.This semester, the students are concentrating on raising the fish, but they're having some trouble, according to Holl."The fish are dying," she said. The students are trying to figure out why, and as part of that process, two UW-Manitowoc students visited one of the biology classes recently to answer questions. They and other students had come to the school previously as part of the project, as did UW-Manitowoc biology professors Dr. Richard Hein and Dr. Rebecca Abler.  During second semester, the high school students will extract chemical compounds from plants to be tested on the zebra fish or other organisms, according to Abler. When a reaction is observed, further testing will be done at UW-Manitowoc and in some cases at UW-Stout, which also is involved. "We're trying to get the students as part of that chain of research," Holl said.

Project goal The goal of the project, which is funded by a grant, is to recruit and retain students in STEM majors — science, technology, engineering and math. Abler said UW-Manitowoc also is working with Lincoln High School. Collaborating on a university research project "leads the students to real-world science," showing them what scientists do, Holl said. In addition, "students have more of a stake in it because somebody else is going to be trying to use their information," she said. A typical school lab is independent of the labs of the other students in the class, VHS science teacher Ben Cigler said. With this project, the students all have their own part to play, but those parts are integral to the whole project. "With our project, nothing is like a canned lab," said Joseph Weber, a sophomore biology student at UW-Manitowoc and one of It's hard to really understand science without doing actual research, Weber said. He said it was when he began four students working on the zebra fish project.doing research that "things started to click for me." Being involved in real research makes the work "more realistic and cool" than if it were just a school project, said Ashley Peck, 15. "It teaches you responsibility," said Jordan King, 15. The students need to care for the fish, such as feeding them, ensuring the water is clean and checking the pH of the water, King said. Weber said the value of collaborating with the high school students "works both ways." He said the UW students learn and understand more as they teach the younger students. Cindy Hodgson: (920) 686-2966 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting (920) 686-2966 end_of_the_skype_highlighting or chodgson@htrnews.com ** 