Welcome to my new periodic communication, the " Provost’s Pulse." I intend to publish these ‘pulses’ perhaps twice a semester and focus on one or two topics that are of broad interest to our academic community. In this inaugural issue, I focus on my new position as the Provost of Florida Tech and discuss my observations of the research infrastructure at the university. Please remember, while I want to share my thinking in this communication, I also want to hear from you—so feel free to drop me a line or let’s have a chat.

GETTING TO KNOW YOU

I am very grateful to serve as your new provost and am excited to be at Florida Tech. I support the new strategic plan to make Florida Tech one of the nation’s best STEM institutions. The university is on a positive trajectory, and I want to contribute to this momentum. In my first semester here, I have managed to meet the faculty in small groups, in departmental or similar-type meetings in every academic unit of the university. I even got some great answers to the question asking faculty to give a “fun fact” about themselves! It seems that we have lots of soccer players, photographers, nature lovers, among others. We also had some discussions about faculty concerns and issues. I appreciated the open and positive dialogue and will work hard to mitigate the concerns.

STAYING CONNECTED

President Nicklow and I meet with the student government leaders and the faculty senate president monthly. We also have been attending the first part of the faculty senate meetings, and these have been constructive and informative. Next semester, I am inviting the new faculty in small groups to an informal lunch so I can learn about their perspectives and their ambitions so I can help them succeed.

LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION

As a plant space biologist, I love living on the Space Coast. I have set up my research lab and have started mentoring undergraduates who work with me on plant space biology. Also, I have been working on establishing stronger and new collaborations with NASA and the space industry. Recently, a group of us met with Kennedy Space Center Director Janet Petro. She is very enthusiastic about providing opportunities for our students and faculty to do collaborative research. I also have met with the Space Force leadership as well as with officials from Blue Origin. Again, this company hires our graduates and can provide exciting internships for our students.

FLORIDA TECH AS A RESEARCH UNIVERSITY

As we all know, Florida Tech is an R2 national research university: "Doctoral University: High Research Activity." Thus, research is important to us and is integral to our mission as we want to create a conducive environment for inquiry and discovery.

One measure (but not the only measure) of research productivity is research expenditures. For FY24, the total research expenditure was $15.7 million. Given the quality of our faculty and the fact that we are a STEM-based institution, our external funding should be higher. So, I also have spent my first semester trying to better understand research and the infrastructure that supports research at our university. 

Of course, we have a number of super-star researchers who do well with external funding and are pushing the boundaries of the frontiers of knowledge. However, I’d like to get more faculty funded. I also believe in leadership by example and recently have served as co-PI on a $2.3 million grant from NIST to support the improvement of Florida Tech's high-performance computing (HPC) facility. 

Based on my observations and comments from others, the Office of Sponsored Programs (OSP) helps the faculty with research grant budgets. However, there is limited support for grant proposal development. The critical steps in proposal development are project conceptualization and strategic implementation. Well-crafted, funded proposals take time to write and frequently require proof-of-concept data. Perhaps the most critical part of a successful proposal is getting feedback, making edits, and revising the proposal prior to submission.

SUCCEEDING TOGETHER

To jump-start this process, I have engaged the services of the Hanover Group to increase the quality, volume, and success rates of our external grant applications. They have a great track record in helping faculty to identify, craft, and submit the most competitive proposals. With the help of our deans, we have identified a cohort for the Hanover Grants Academy, where the selected faculty members will receive individualized mentoring on the grant-writing process over the course of a year. We will run these academies for the next three years—each with a new cohort. The long-term goal is that if this approach is successful, we will start these proposal development services in-house at Florida Tech.

I also want to look at all aspects of research incentives, support, and administration at our university to make sure we are following established best practices.  To this end, we are bringing in Dr. Terri Shelton, a former vice president for research and economic development, for a site visit in late January to evaluate our research enterprise.  She will be meeting with many groups, including our recently re-established faculty research council.To aid in our evaluation, our faculty recently received a one-question survey on the research infrastructure at our university. We look forward to Dr. Shelton’s visit and recommendations to continue to improve research at Florida Tech.

STRATEGIC SYNERGY

All of these activities are closely aligned with Pillar 2 (Programs Driven by Innovation) of the university’s strategic plan. Specifically, I hope to “expand and diversify externally funded research programs to become a strong R2 research institution.” We have a strong faculty, and any improvements and changes to OSP research infrastructure will help them achieve their full potential. I am convinced that if we all work together and use external and internal analyses, we will become a stronger research university. I look forward to working with the faculty to achieve these important goals!

I look forward to working with the faculty to achieve these important goals! Thanks for your attention and for welcoming me so warmly to Florida Tech.

John Z. Kiss, Ph.D.
Provost and Senior VP for Academic Affairs
L3Harris Professor

Most faculty follow the three-legged stool rule with teaching, research, and service as the core functions of our profession. In this issue of the Provost’s Pulse, I focus on our essential teaching mission.

FACULTY AS TEACHER-SCHOLARS

During my visits to academic units last year, I emphasized one of my favorite phrases regarding the academy: the teacher-scholar model for faculty. This foundational approach to academic work integrates teaching and research. Part of the definition of the university is that we are involved in creating new knowledge. Thus, professors who are active researchers can provide enriched classroom content, and the students benefit from cutting-edge knowledge. I believe that excellence in teaching and research are complementary rather than competing priorities, each enhancing the other when artfully integrated.
 
One of the most beautiful examples of the teacher-scholar model is involving students in research projects. I have had both undergraduates and graduate students fully integrated into my research program in plant gravitational and space biology. Graduate students are a natural part of the research enterprise, but I have found my work with undergraduates very rewarding. My undergraduates have been particularly excited to participate in my spaceflight projects. These undergraduate research experiences are an example of a high-impact practice in education, and often students will say it was the most positive experience they had during their undergraduate careers. Research experience is beneficial for any educated person to understand how science works and how to go about evidence-based hypothesis testing.

ACTIVE LEARNING

Earlier this semester, I was asked by the College of Engineering and Science to present a seminar on my teaching philosophy—no one had ever asked me to do that—so I felt honored! I enjoyed thinking about and preparing for the talk. The key part of my philosophy was the teacher-scholar model, which supports active learning. Compared with traditional passive approaches, active learning is very effective, and I showed a pyramid (aka Bloom's taxonomy) in my slides: we remember 10% of what we read, 20% of what we hear, 30% of what we see, 50% of what we see and hear, 70% of what we discuss with others, 80% of what we personally experience, and 90% of what we do.
 
The Socratic Method is one example of active learning. The heart of this approach is to use guided questions as the teaching method. For example, Harvard physicist Dr. Eric Mazur revolutionized physics education with his "Peer Instruction" technique. During a lecture on Newton's Third Law, instead of simply explaining the concept, Dr. Mazur presents students with a conceptual question: "When a truck collides with a car, which vehicle experiences the greater force?" During my talk the audience gave many good examples of their use of the Socratic Method in their classes.
 
We also discussed many methods and examples of active learning in the classroom. Some examples included classroom discussion (rather than passive lectures), problem-solving activities, case studies, hands-on projects, and, of course, my favorite, undergraduate research. It is clear to me that our faculty practice active learning techniques in the classroom and are interested in finding ways to improve their teaching.

EVALUATION OF TEACHING

In the last part of my presentation to COES on teaching, I provided some of my thoughts on the evaluation of teaching. Teaching is one of our most important duties as faculty, but it is difficult to evaluate. Many times, we use student-based evaluations as the primary method. While student-based instruments are vital to this process, they should not be the sole basis of evaluation. Educational research points to their value but also highlights biases.
 
I strongly favor using multiple methods of evaluation. But first, we can improve student evaluations by not using only the end-of-semester evaluation but doing several midterm check ins with the students. It is better to have fewer questions (e.g., 5-6 is better than 30) and allow students time to write open-ended comments—I have found this type of feedback useful in improving my teaching.
 
What are some other best practices for evaluation of teaching? Peer review is an excellent method, which can include classroom observations by colleagues, a review of teaching materials and course design, and teaching portfolios. It is important to have multiple classroom visits by peers so they get a better sense of the class and teaching. I also recommend developing a specific rubric for evaluation. A great resource for rubrics developed for higher education is this one from Cornell.
 
In my experience, student-based evaluations and peer reports are the main methods in use. However, there are many other possibilities, including learning-outcome assessments, which are direct measures of student achievement against learning objectives. We also can use 360-degree feedback, incorporating perspectives from students, peers, and administrators. The University of Michigan has an engaging resource on multiple methods of teaching evaluation.

CONCLUSIONS

It is clear to me that the Florida Tech faculty care about quality teaching, which is a hallmark of this institution. I go back to the teacher-scholar model which is alive and well at our university. We also participate in the KEEN (Kern Entrepreneurial Engineering Network) project, which focuses on disseminating techniques and activities that help students learn and develop critical thinking skills. I recently attended an exciting presentation on active learning hosted by the Florida Tech Women’s Council. Drs. Proctor and Daly-Engel gave their perspectives on incorporating active learning in the classroom.
 
Thanks for your attention, and I hope to see you on campus soon!
 
John Z. Kiss
Professor & Provost