Dear Colleagues:
Happy New Year and welcome back to what promises to be a great spring semester! We know that students may be making New Year’s resolutions and hope that this year they will keep all the ones that include the themes of staying on top of their classes and projects and remaining as engaged as possible with their programs, peers and faculty.
It’s always helpful at the beginning of the semester to remind ourselves about resources available to support our students. We maintain a Resources for Students page on In the Loop that you can use when meeting with students or if you know of a student that needs assistance.
The University provides additional information concerning our responsibilities as instructors. This week is the perfect time to distribute your syllabi, set up your office hours schedule and mark your calendars for your finals.
While you’re checking your calendars, make plans to be a part of our spring outreach events: DiscoverE Day and Night of the Open Door. At all four events — each happens on the Tempe and Polytechnic campuses — we need your involvement to inspire the next generation Sun Devils and Fulton Schools students.
We encourage you to get involved with these events and it is easy to participate:
- Open your lab for tours and demonstrations.
- Offer an age-appropriate hands-on activity. These activities can be relatively simple demonstrations of engineering projects or principles or illustrate some important aspect of your research.
- Encourage your students — and student organizations you may work with — to showcase or demonstrate their projects, particularly students involved in FURI or other undergraduate research, senior capstone or design projects, and FSE 100 projects.
- Please volunteer and encourage students to volunteer with exhibits and logistics. With hundreds of people expected at each event, volunteers are key to making our community outreach successful.
DiscoverE Day happens on Friday, February 12 on the Tempe campus and on Friday, April 1, 2016 on the Polytechnic campus. Learn more.
Night of the Open Door happens on Friday, February 19 on the Polytechnic campus and on Saturday, Feb. 27 on the Tempe campus. Learn more and register your exhibit.
And of course, we hope that you will also be at Commencement ceremonies on May 9 and our Convocations on May 11.
Let’s resolve to have a great semester!
Kyle
