College of Social Sciences and Public Policy
at Florida State University
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Engage Magazine is the College of Social Sciences and Public Policy’s annual magazine highlighting the successes of our students, faculty, staff, and alumni.
Join the Department of Sociology and the Challenger Learning Center for the 50th Anniversary of Hip Hop Celebration showcase on Thursday, November 16, from 6-9 p.m., in the Challenger Learning Center. Due to limited seating, attendees are encouraged to arrive early, as free admission is on a first-come, first-served basis.
Mark Horner, Ph.D., Professor of Geography; Michael Duncan, Ph.D.; Professor of Urban and Regional Planning; and Dennis J. Smith, Planner-in-Residence for Urban and Regional Planning, co-authored the article “Ridership Dynamics and Characteristics of Potential Riders of a Transit System: The SunRail of Central Florida” in the journal Transportation Research Interdisciplinary Perspectives.
Students, faculty, staff, alumni, and friends of the College of Social Sciences and Public Policy gathered outside Bellamy on Saturday, October 14 for the FSU vs. Syracuse Tailgate. The tailgate was a part of the ongoing COSSPP 50th Anniversary celebration.
Gary VanLandingham, Ph.D., Director and Senior Practitioner in Residence of the Reubin O’D. Askew School of Public Administration and Policy, has been elected as a Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration.
Join the College of Social Sciences and Public Policy’s International Affairs Program & The Center for Global Engagement’s Engage Your World Speaker Series for an Engage Your World event. It will take place on Thursday, Nov. 16 with the reception at 5 p.m. and the lecture at 5:30 p.m. in The Globe Auditorium.
Join the College of Social Sciences and Public Policy’s Ruth K. & Shepard Broad International Lecture Series & The Center for Global Engagement’s Engage Your World Speaker Series for an Engage Your World event. It will take place on Thursday, November 2 with the reception at 4:30 p.m. and the lecture at 5 p.m. in The Globe Auditorium.
In “Learning through Collaborative Data Projects: Engaging Students and Building Rapport,” Matthew Pietryka, Ph.D., and Rebecca A. Glazier, Ph.D. propose a series of collaborative assignments to engage students and foster rapport between the students and the instructor, even in large classes.
The authors’ article describes and evaluates the effectiveness of a series of collaborative assignments that help instructors to both engage students and build rapport with them. Using student feedback in four different college courses, the authors show that students reported that they learned more and found the assignments more enjoyable compared to a typical college assignment. Also, students reported that receiving individualized feedback about their contributions made them more interested in the material and made them feel like the instructor was more invested in their learning. These survey results indicate that the assignments succeeded at both engaging students and at building rapport.
While most instructors are interested in better engaging their students in order to help them learn, engaging students can be difficult. Moreover, following recommendations for how to engage students is often a resource-intensive task for instructors. The collaborative data projects proposed by the authors provide instructors with a resource-effective way to engage students while also building rapport even in large, online classes.
In “To Court Without the Corps? The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Florida v. Georgia,” Tyler McCreary, Ph.D., and Frank Schmitz, Ph.D., examine the role of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in a recent Supreme Court case about water allocation in the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint (ACF) river basin.
The authors review the arguments and findings from the US Supreme Court decision “Florida v. Georgia.” This judicial case began with allegations of ecological damage due to upstream water overconsumption in the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint (ACF) river basin. However, the case ultimately revolved around the technical practices and regulation manuals of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, who operates the system of federal dams that impacts the flow of the Chattahoochee and Apalachicola rivers. Dr. McCreary and Dr. Schmitz examine the evidence and arguments presented in the Florida v. Georgia case and argue that the ecological disturbances and damages occurred in the Apalachicola watershed cannot be understood nor remedied without considering the history and management practices of the Corps in the ACF basin.
The authors’ analysis of the Florida v. Georgia case highlights the importance to water governance of the policies, technical practices, and production of knowledge by engineers and other experts. More generally, the authors’ article suggest that Florida v. Georgia is a more general invitation for geographers to develop political ecologies that critically engage with the practices of engineers and experts in other transboundary river basins.
