The annual Garnet Apple Award for Teaching Innovation honors the University of South Carolina’s most exceptional faculty who demonstrate a commitment to best teaching practices and an ongoing record of developing innovative strategies to enhance student learning in their courses. This year saw an exceptionally strong pool of nominees. Six recipients received this year’s award and are to be commended for their accomplishments.

Daniel Jenkins, Associate Professor, Music Theory demonstrated a strong pedagogical rationale and compelling, detailed examples to illustrate how he creatively employs flipped and active learning pedagogies to transform the teaching of music theory.

Steven Rodney, Assistant Professor, Physics and Astronomy, showed an in-depth familiarity with pedagogical research and best practices and provided detailed examples of how he continually and creatively experiments with implementing various ideas to improve student learning in his courses.

Lisabeth Sisk, Senior Instructor, School of Journalism & Mass Communications, implemented collaborative teamwork in her large courses, incorporated guest speakers within her classes and provided her students with effective service learning opportunities.

Sandra Strick, Associate Professor, School of Hospitality and Tourism Management, effectively included active learning, real world applications, student-centered learning, backward-design and interactions within her courses.

Gail Wagner, Associate Professor, Anthropology, has a long and varied record of creatively incorporating active learning, inquiry and new technologies into a variety of her courses.

The committee was very impressed with Elizabeth White's strong discussion of the pedagogical theories and research that shape her teaching and how she incorporates student-centered feedback and individualized instruction within her courses.

Just as the Breakthrough Awards celebrate the importance of innovative research, the Garnet Apple Awards were created to showcase the transformative impact that innovative, engaged faculty have on their students and the larger community. We thank this year's winners for their contributions to the university.