Great Plains Conference April 27-28

The American Psychological Society Fund for Teaching and Public Understanding of Psychological Science awarded a $5,000 grant to Amy Schweinle, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the Division of Counseling and Psychology in Education, and Doug Peterson, Ph.D., an associate professor in the Department of Psychology and director of University Honors, to host a teaching conference at The University of South Dakota.

The first Great Plains Conference on the Teaching of Psychology (C-TOP) will be held April 27 and 28 on USD's main campus.

"The APS Teaching Fund offered the opportunity to connect with fellow psychology instructors in the area. This was the perfect chance to bring us all together to identify one another, share resources, ideas and support. Our goal is to create a lasting network among high school, college and university psychology instructors. through a regional teaching conference, Web site and listserv," said Schweinle.

The conference is open to both high school and college or university faculty and will address such issues as diversity, pedagogy, technology, assessment and research on teaching. A special guest speaker, Richard Gerrig, Ph.D., psycholinguist, professor of psychology at Stony Brook University and co-author of Psychology and Life, will address teaching psychology as a science and how to apply that science in daily life.

This conference will allow area psychology instructors to develop a network of collaboration and cooperation and share novel approaches to teaching which will improve education among local high schools and colleges. Introducing diverse educators to each other can initiate the sharing of resources, such as guest lecturers, support and ideas.

For more information about attending C-TOP or submitting a proposal to present at the conference, please visit http://www.usd. edu/gpctop.