Dr. Eric Jones
Name: Dr. Eric Jones
Title: Associate Professor of Botany and Faculty Assembly Vice President
Department: University of Maine Machias
How long have you been teaching? Since 1999, starting as a TA
How long have you been at UMaine? Since 2012 at UMM
SEATLE Award for: “The Cross Campus Pollinator”
Meet Eric
Courses you Teach
FYS 101 Coastal Campus Science Bridge Program
BIO 117 This is Life! (intro. Biology for majors)
BIO 119 Plant Life (intro. botany)
BIO 229 Plant Systematics
BIO 240 Introduction to Bioethics
BIO 245 Ecology
BIO 333 Plant Ecology
BIO 410 Senior Seminar in Biology
EES 100 Human Populations and the Global Environment
Tell us a bit about you
What’s something you would secretly love to teach, even if it has nothing to do with your field?
I would love to be able to teach creative writing. I really enjoy writing fiction. It is one of my favorite pastimes. I think it would be delightful to engender in others an appreciation for the power of fiction to tell meaningful stories of significance.
What historical figure would you most like to co-teach a course with?
I think that getting to co-teach a course with Socrates would be a remarkably illuminating experience. I think that engaging with others in dialectical exploration with someone like him would be a wonderful learning experience.
What’s something you have always wanted to learn, but haven’t yet?
I would really like to learn another language. I would like to learn to speak Scottish Gaelic to connect with my own cultural heritage but as I work increasingly with our indigenous community members, I would appreciate learning more about their languages as well simply because so much cultural identity and philosophy are embedded in our language.
What’s something you’d walk across campus in a snowstorm for?
I would walk across campus in a snowstorm for a good game of Dungeons and Dragons or to spend some time with dogs.
Tell us a bit about your approach to teaching
How would you describe the changes to your course design or approaches to teaching?
My approach to teaching has changed as a result of my work with CITL to become a more purposeful holistic approach to student learning. I have developed a broad array of pedagogical tools over the many years that I have been teaching. What I most appreciate about my work with Gemma and other folks at CITL is learning how to leverage those tools to the greatest effect for my students. It goes beyond scaffolding, just in time approaches, and class discussions. The convergence of those approaches in a deliberate, purposeful way is extremely powerful and I greatly appreciate all I have learned from Gemma and others in this regard.
How would you describe the impact of these changes on the students in your classes?
Certainly student engagement has benefitted greatly from changes that I have been able to make in my courses as a result of the work I’ve done with CITL. Creating a well structured and fully developed flipped classroom structure has allowed our class time to be more engaging for the students and more rewarding for all of us. It has provided opportunities for student feedback on the content and approach I take with my courses to take place in real time. This is an aspect of my teaching that I have found most rewarding.
As a result of this work, what has changed for you as an instructor and/or colleague in terms of your own teaching. Was anything different for you or more available to you as a result of your efforts? Was there anything that you were able to do that you could not do before as a result of your efforts?
Firstly, having created the space in my classes to focus on discussions and cooperative group exercises in class time has been one of my personally favorite outcomes of my work with CITL. I enjoy the time I have in class with my students now that I’m not rushing to get through lectures each class session.
Even more exciting in some ways is the fact that I have found the support I need to gamify my courses. This is something that I’ve wanted to do for many years. Here I’m talking about setting the course content in the context of a fictional world of my own making such that tasks, assignments, and assessments are imbued with a narrative that encourages students to see learning as an adventure, which they look forward to engaging with. I very much look forward to continuing this work in the years to come.
What would be a piece of advice you might give a new instructor at UMaine?
I would say, while you are here to teach, don’t forget to learn too. I don’t just mean through your own research but with respect to communication, student engagement, and course planning. It is important to recognize that one can always continue to learn and grow in these respects throughout one’s career as students always present us with new challenges and ideas that are worth paying close attention to.