Iowa State Professor Honored for Teaching Excellence

AMES, Iowa - Richard Schultz, a natural resource ecology and management professor at Iowa State, received one of six regional awards for teaching excellence Nov. 9.

As a recipient of a United States Department of Agriculture Food and Agriculture Sciences Excellence in Teaching Award, both Schultz and the ISU College of Agriculture and Life Sciences received plaques at an awards ceremony during the annual meeting of the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges in Chicago. The college also received a $2,000 award to strengthen instructional programs.

Schultz teaches courses in ecology, soils and watershed management with an emphasis on field laboratory applications. He uses mixed-discipline teams to promote active learning among students. Two of his courses are senior capstone courses that provide students with real-world natural resource problems.

Schultz has said his goal is to make students "field smart" and able to identify and evaluate problems, then develop realistic solutions based on scientific principles. Students in all his courses develop class presentations on global natural resource issues.

He annually leads study-abroad courses to China and South Korea. Schultz advises undergraduate students, mentors four to five graduate students at a time and is faculty advisor to the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Student Council.

In addition, Schultz is active in outreach activities that support his research program, which deals with the placement, design and installation of conservation buffers in agricultural landscapes.

Schultz received his bachelor's, master's and doctorate degrees in forestry from Iowa State University. He was an assistant professor of forestry at the University of Georgia for seven years before joining the Iowa State faculty in 1979.