Biology faculty met for a day at Massanetta Springs near Harrisonburg, VA, to discuss departmental strategic planning and work on community building.  The retreat was lead by (l to r) Sylvia Nadler from William Jewell College, Judy Dilts, Associate Dean of CSM and Louise Temple, Head of Biology.

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As a warm-up exercise we answered silly questions quickly while tossing a kooshball.

  

To sharpen our problem-solving skills we designed paper towers to hold tennis balls.  They were judged by height and strength. Later we realized that students might interpret OUR instructions in different ways…

           

Revolving groups then developed sets of goals and objectives for various departmental issues including the curriculum, graduate program, and future makeup of the faculty.

     

Over lunch we discussed our research with posters.

  

Lastly, we shared ideas for breaking up lectures with change-ups.