Excellence in Innovative Instructional Delivery - Individual

Megan Bucknum upends traditional classroom hierarchies and transforms campus and community settings into learning laboratories and students into stakeholders. The associate teaching professor in the Department of Geography, Planning & Sustainability in Rowan’s School of Earth & Environment developed an innovative course, “Selected Topics in Geography and Environment:  City Planning + Education,” to examine how urban planners can help children understand the environments where they live and learn. Rowan students collaborated with Glassboro Public Schools to create interactive learning activities for K-8 classrooms. The lessons were designed to broaden children’s perspectives and encourage them to suggest improvements for public spaces in their community. Ultimately, Bucknum and the fourth- and eighth-graders presented their design ideas to the Glassboro Planning Board, with support from the Rowan students. “This is a great class for the urban planning program because not only does it teach future planners about engaging with a community’s young people, but it also teaches young people about the importance of planning and making change in the community,” a Rowan student says.