{"id":7119,"date":"2020-02-04T13:20:32","date_gmt":"2020-02-04T19:20:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/online.suny.edu\/onlineteaching\/?page_id=7119"},"modified":"2020-06-26T10:31:55","modified_gmt":"2020-06-26T16:31:55","slug":"2020ambassador-dunham","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/online.suny.edu\/onlineteaching\/engage\/ambassadorprogram\/2020ambassador-dunham\/","title":{"rendered":"Open SUNY Online Teaching Ambassador 2020: Fredonia &#8211; Michael Dunham"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_7120\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-7120\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/online.suny.edu\/onlineteaching\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/MDunham_Fredonia_350.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-7120 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/online.suny.edu\/onlineteaching\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/MDunham_Fredonia_350-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"Michael Dunham, Ph.D\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/online.suny.edu\/onlineteaching\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/MDunham_Fredonia_350-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/online.suny.edu\/onlineteaching\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/MDunham_Fredonia_350-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/online.suny.edu\/onlineteaching\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/MDunham_Fredonia_350.jpg 350w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-7120\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Michael Dunham, Ph.D. <br \/>SUNY Fredonia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Michael Dunham, Ph.D.<\/strong>, an assistant professor of physics at Fredonia, earned a B.S. in physics and astronomy from the University of Rochester, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in astronomy from the University of Texas at Austin.\u00a0 Dr. Dunham teaches courses in both physics and astronomy at Fredonia, and conducts research in astronomy aimed at understanding the physical processes governing how stars and planets form. Dr. Dunham has had a strong interest in teaching since the very beginning of his career, working as an undergraduate teaching assistant for introductory physics and astronomy courses at the University of Rochester, where he won an annual department award for his work as an undergraduate TA.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Upon arriving at Fredonia in 2016, Dr. Dunham created an online version of Fredonia\u2019s introductory astronomy course for non-science majors.\u00a0 Dr. Dunham teaches this online course during the intersession terms as a complement to a face-to-face version that he teaches during the regular academic semesters.\u00a0 The goals of this general education course are to introduce students to the subject of astronomy, the contents and nature of the Universe, the process of science, and the connections between science and everyday life.\u00a0 The latter two goals are motivated by the essential need for scientific literacy in an informed democracy, and the course uses the \u201ccool factor\u201d of astronomy to teach about science, scientific processes, and critical thinking.\u00a0 By offering an online version, Dr. Dunham aims to increase the reach of this course by making it available to students who can\u2019t fit it into their schedules during the academic semesters. By using pre-built \u201cmodules\u201d consisting of readings, writing assignments, and discussion board activities that can be completed by each student asynchronously, Dr. Dunham allows each student to work on their own schedule while still feeling like they are part of a community of learners working together to discover and master the course content.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Future online offerings developed by Dr. Dunham will continue this basic theme \u2013 creating accessible courses that allow students schedule flexibility while still feeling as though they are part of an active community.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Michael Dunham, Ph.D., an assistant professor of physics at Fredonia, earned a B.S. in physics and astronomy from the University of Rochester, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in astronomy from the University of Texas at Austin.\u00a0 Dr. Dunham teaches courses in both physics and astronomy at Fredonia, and conducts research in astronomy aimed at understanding [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8158,"featured_media":0,"parent":2473,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-7119","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/online.suny.edu\/onlineteaching\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7119"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/online.suny.edu\/onlineteaching\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/online.suny.edu\/onlineteaching\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/online.suny.edu\/onlineteaching\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8158"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/online.suny.edu\/onlineteaching\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7119"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/online.suny.edu\/onlineteaching\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7119\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7159,"href":"https:\/\/online.suny.edu\/onlineteaching\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7119\/revisions\/7159"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/online.suny.edu\/onlineteaching\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2473"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/online.suny.edu\/onlineteaching\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}