The Vice Provost for Academic Innovation and the Center for Teaching Innovation (CTI) invite Cornell faculty to apply for the 2025-2026 Creative Teaching Awards. This award series seeks to recognize and share innovative classroom methodologies and teaching implementations, with the goal of improving teaching through the sharing of new ideas, methods, and strategies. This year's theme highlights creative approaches to engaging students in local learning experiences outside the classroom, particularly in spaces or places on the Cornell campus, within Ithaca, or within New York State.
Students in the undergraduate seminar, Black Girlhood Studies (HD/PSYCH 4560), collaborated with English Language Arts teachers and 8th-grade students at DeWitt Middle School. Cornell students selected books featuring Black girl protagonists, then developed discussion guides and resources. The learning experience included several key components: establishing partnerships with local middle school educators to learn about curricular design and age-appropriate pedagogical approaches; developing a theoretically-grounded discussion guide based on academic scholarship; and ultimately working with middle school students to gather their feedback to refine the materials. This process fundamentally transformed students’ understanding of research ethics toward collaborative, participatory approaches.
Katie Fiorella, Associate Professor, Public and Ecosystem Health
Students in Food Systems and Health (VTPEH 6121) learned from firsthand experiences about the complexity and interconnectedness of food systems. To understand food production, they visited Cornell's rich agricultural production facilities, such as the teaching dairy and aquaponics facility. To appreciate food system value chains, students shopped at grocery stores using the USDA Healthy Food Basket weekly budget allocations. Students then presented what they were able to purchase at Walmart, the Ithaca Farmers Market, Wegmans, and Trader Joe's. Weekly discussion encourages students to integrate field experiences with course content, fostering ongoing reflection that extends learning beyond the visit itself. The hands-on experiences enabled students to understand theoretical frameworks in concrete contexts, identifying feedback loops, stakeholder power dynamics, and health pathways operating within real food systems.
Peggy Leung and Andrea Card, Assistant Professors, Internal Medicine Section, Weill Cornell Medicine
This teaching approach was implemented within the Internal Medicine Residency Program at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medicine, specifically designed for residents and their continuity clinic patients. In pairs, physicians and patients participated in a museum-based interactive session that fundamentally reimagines the physician-patient relationship. Guided by professional museum educators, physician-patient pairs participated in art-viewing, sketching, and object-handling activities designed to promote self-reflection and dialogue. Unlike traditional clinical encounters, this experience positions physicians and patients as equal collaborators in artistic exploration and personal reflection. Following the museum experience, residents completed structured reflections examining how the shared experience influenced their understanding of their patients' strengths, challenges, and humanity. Residents consistently report transformative shifts in how they perceive their patients, moving from problem-focused clinical thinking to holistic appreciation of patients' creativity, resilience, and inner lives.
Anthony Ong, Professor, Psychology
The Science of Well-Being course (HD 3490) transformed Cornell's campus and Ithaca's natural landscapes into a living laboratory for psychological well-being. For example, the Gorge Awe Walk sent students to Cascadilla Gorge or Ithaca Falls with a structured observation protocol. Sensory Savoring Routes prescribed specific campus paths matched to weather and time, such as the suspension bridge at dusk, the Arts Quad after snowfall, and Beebe Lake at dawn. Students received location-specific prompts on what to notice and what to let pass, based on research on savoring. Rather than treating well-being interventions as abstract exercises, place-based experiences anchored theoretical concepts in specific locations. Each experience integrated with Conversational Pods (small discussion groups) where students shared observations and weekly reflection papers connecting place-based experiences to course readings.
Marvin Pritts, Professor, Horticulture Section, School of Integrative Plant Sciences
A major component of this horticulture course on Berry Crop Production and Management (PLSCI 4520) was field trips to local farms where students saw how the principles learned in class could be applied in real-world situations. During the fall semester, students visited five farms ranging from small, pick-your-own operations all the way to a 32-acre greenhouse growing strawberries in winter for the wholesale market. With help from Cooperative Extension, a relatively new grower with an interest in adding berry production to their farm enterprise was identified and invited to collaborate with the class. Students worked in teams to develop a modified business and marketing plan for this particular farm over the course of the semester. Students needed to consider biological, physical, economic, and human factors when making recommendations back to the grower. They also appreciated having the opportunity to interact with actual farmers and experience gratitude for their creative and thoughtful contributions.
2025-2026 Honorable Mentions
Alexandra Dufresne, Professor of Practice, Cornell Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy
Students in this public policy clinic course (PUBPOL 4960, 4961, 5960, 5961) worked in teams with community organizations, researchers, and public officials to create policy proposals and traveled to Albany to advocate for it with legislators. Students developed both a theoretical and practical understanding of state and local politics, as well as skills in communication, legal and policy research, and political strategy. They also gave policy design and advocacy training to nonprofits in the community.
Jessica Leeker, Professor of Practice, School of Operations Research and Information Engineering
Students in the data modeling and analysis course (ORIE 4820/5820) engaged in a “Data in the Wild” project by leaving the classroom to collect original data through structured observation or brief interviews across their community. Students chose a local phenomenon, such as campus transit usage, dining hall wait times, accessibility barriers, student study habits, or public space usage on the Arts Quad. They designed their study, collected the data, and then worked on cleaning and analyzing the data. In addition to learning data analysis skills, they wrote a reflection on ethics, bias, and uncertainty.
Lindsay Goodale, Senior Lecturer, Animal Science
After learning about equine biology and management throughout the semester, students in ANSC 2650 applied their knowledge by evaluating the Oxley Equestrian Center, an equine facility on campus. They collected data at the facility, including photographs, measurements, air flow and air quality measures, staff interviews, horse evaluation, hay testing, and more. The project culminated in a presentation of their findings to the facility manager and staff.
Marc Goebel, Senior Lecturer, Natural Resources and the Environment Section, Ashley School of Global Development and the Environment
Introductory Field Biology (NTRES/EVNS 2100) is an immersive learning experience that centers on place-based learning in Cornell's natural areas near campus. Students practice hands-on ecological sampling, species identification, and habitat assessment. For this course, small teams of students engaged collaboratively to solve discipline-specific field assignments during field lab outings, which strengthened teamwork and sharpened observational skills. Weekly individual field journals further reinforced learning by prompting students to reflect on assignment results, observations, and personal experiences to help develop their scientific identity. Students applied their skills together on a team research project in which they formulated a research question from field observations, explored sampling designs, collected and analyzed data, and presented their results in both oral and written formats.
Deirdre Snyder, Lecturer, Marketing & Management Communication
As part of the Persuasive Business Communication for Hospitality Leaders course (HADM 3650) students applied persuasive writing and speaking skills to a real civic challenge. The City of Ithaca was preparing its application for New York State's Downtown Revitalization Initiative (DRI). The instructor partnered with the Planning & Development Division to identify communication needs that would directly support the City's submission. As seniors who had spent four years in Ithaca, students were excited to contribute to a project that could shape the city's future. The instructor could see meaningful growth in their persuasive thinking and writing through the project.
Georg Hoffstaetter de Torquat, Professor, Physics
Physics concepts can feel distant or abstract, but on a sailboat, they become much easier to grasp, as they are encountered through direct, embodied experience: students feel lift in the sail, drag in the water, and the moment when equilibrium teeters toward capsize. Until fall break, all Tuesday classes in PHYS 1205 (The Physics of Sailing) met on sailboats. The course used boats from Cornell's sailing center with two to three students onboard, each accompanied by an experienced sailor from the center. Students performed measurements on board, experimented with wind and water in real-time, and then analyzed their data back on shore, helped by analytic classroom instruction.
Thomas Godwin, Professor of Practice, Accounting
AEM 4875 (Low-Income Taxpayer Law & Accounting Practicum) is a one-semester experiential course. Students learned about low-income taxpayer issues, prepared individual income tax returns, and offered tax advice for low-income taxpayers in the Tompkins County community. In addition to providing a valuable service to the community, students developed their professional skills and client service skills, as well as proficiency with a professional tax preparation software product and a deeper understanding of technical tax issues.
2025-2026 Call for Applications
The deadline to apply for a 2025-26 Creative Teaching Award has passed.
Students often recount some of their most memorable and impactful learning experiences as happening outside a classroom – on field trips or research sites, inside buildings such as museums, greenhouses, or work facilities, outside in natural areas, farms, or city streets, or meeting with people within a community. Have you found creative approaches to taking students outside the classroom, to learn within a different setting or with different people? Have you found ways to structure these experiences to be particularly effective, for example, through integrating projects or assignments? What approaches do you use to prepare students and help them get the most out of the visit? How do you connect classroom learning with the experiences they have outside the classroom? We are especially interested in creative ideas for teaching within our campus or nearby areas that other instructors could easily adapt.
Up to five examples of creative practices will be selected to receive an award of $5,000 payable to a faculty research account. Award winners will collaborate with the Center for Teaching Innovation to document and share their experiences in online case studies for wider sharing and adoption by colleagues at and beyond Cornell, and will present their experiences at the Provost's Teaching Showcase scheduled for April 2026.
Eligibility and Requirements
All full-time faculty members (tenure-track, tenured, lecturers, and RTE faculty) are invited to apply. Applications can also be submitted on behalf of a course team that includes postdocs, graduate students, or professional staff.
Applications should describe innovations that have already been implemented in at least one class at Cornell.
The principal faculty member(s) will participate in the Provost’s Teaching Showcase event to share their teaching strategy with other faculty.
Award winners will collaborate with CTI to document their teaching strategy in a case study for possible adoption by colleagues.
Application Process
Interested faculty are invited to share their creative teaching approach via an online application, which must include:
The context of the course(s) in which the teaching approach has been implemented (topic, number of students, learning outcomes).
A description of the learning experience outside of the classroom. What did you expect students would learn? Was it integrated into other components of the course (e.g., assignments, projects, discussions, reflections)? How did you help prepare students to get the most out of the experience? (200-400 words)
The impacts you observed in student learning, thinking, or growth as a result of this learning experience. (50-150 words)
Challenges you may have encountered and what might help overcome these challenges. (50-150 words)
Advice for other instructors who might adapt your strategies. (50-150 words)
Instructors are also encouraged to provide supporting materials such as assignment instructions or reflection prompts, images, quotations from student feedback, etc.
2023-2024 Awardees & Honorable Mentions
Theme: Creative Responses to Generative AI
The Awardees documented their approaches and the results of their innovative work in Creative Teaching Award Case Studies: Creative Responses to Generative AI. These case studies are downloadable and may be adapted for different courses and learning environments.
Awardees
Jennifer Birkeland, Landscape Architecture, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
Tracy Carrick, Knight Institute, College of Arts & Sciences
Juan Hinestroza, Fiber Science and Apparel, College of Human Ecology
Peter Katzenstein (students: Amelia Arsenault; Peter Joachim), Government, College of Arts & Sciences
Amie Patchen, Public and Ecosystem Health, College of Veterinary Medicine
Honorable Mentions
Toby Ault, Atmospheric Science, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
Michael Jefferson, Architecture, College of Architecture, Art, and Planning
Eddy Man Kim, Human Centered Design, College of Human Ecology
Suzanne Lane, Engineering Communications Program, College of Engineering
Melissa Meyers, Knight Institute/English Language Support, College of Arts & Sciences
Qian Yang, Information Science, Cornell Ann S. Bowers College of Computing and Information
2024-2025 Awardees & Honorable Mentions
Theme: Innovative Assessment Practices
The Awardees documented their approaches and the results of their innovative work in Creative Teaching Award Case Studies: Innovative Assessment Practices. These case studies are downloadable and may be adapted for different courses and learning environments.
