For immediate release: May 19, 2003
For more information, contact Susan Griffith at 216-368-1004 or sbg4@po.cwru.edu

CLEVELAND—It's not every day that a teacher eats chalk, but Eric Youngstrom's developmental psychopathology students remember the time this assistant professor of psychology did to demonstrate the meaning of pica—an eating disorder where people eat things like paint chips or dirt.

Eric Youngstrom

"I thought wow!! Just from his facial expressions you could tell that it didn't taste good," said Elliot Law, one of Youngstrom's former students and now a research assistant in the department of psychology. "It was very memorable."

"Apparently for all of us," added Youngstrom, who had written pica on the board and then spontaneously bit into the chalk. He also recalls spending the next 30 seconds chugging down a soda pop to get rid of the chalky taste.

Law said he also won't forget the lesson on "super tasters," people who have a large number of taste buds that may cause some anorexic people to find eating unpleasant because of the overpowering taste of food: Youngstrom used a blue marker on his tongue in an experiment to count taste buds.

Although Youngstrom has used a few attention grabbers in class since his arrival at CWRU as a junior faculty member, he has strived to reach the high level and standards of teaching excellence established by CWRU's faculty members.

Learning he is a recipient of the 2003 Carl F. Wittke Award for undergraduate teaching is validation for efforts he gives to his undergraduate students in the developmental psychopathology and research methods courses. He also teaches several graduate level courses in child and family therapy, child and family assessment and multivariate statistics.

This was his second Wittke Award nomination.

What drives his teaching is the "G thing" or "how students can generalize" what is said in class to what they will experience in their personal and work lives.

One of the most boring classes that Youngstrom had in college was his research methods class. The class was comprised of information from the textbook, a lecture with overhead slides from the book publisher, two quizzes and three exams. Youngstrom felt he could skip class and just read the book.

When he found out he was going to teach research methods, he struggled with the idea of teaching the class he disliked in college, but now he finds he uses the methods every day in his research projects on psychopathy in adolescences and a new five-year study of bipolar disorders or manic-depression in children and adolescents.

"Even if research wasn't a part my career, I enjoy it so much that I'd do it as a hobby," Youngstrom said.

Today his research methods class starts off with a telepathic experiment that involves the illusion of magic—or Youngstrom making telepathic tries at guessing which cards student pick and with students having to come up with some ideas about what was working and what is not working as an introduction to psychological research.

Students also design a survey comprised of three questions from each student and that is then given to another psychology class. As the students learn about statistical analyses and other research information, they use the survey as a base for class discussion and a research paper.

Each student must also do an experiment growing radishes. Students can design their own test. Past experiments have ranged from talking or yelling at the plants to what kinds of music stimulate plant growth. Instead of a exams, the students make a poster presentation similar to the ones presented at conferences.

As Youngstrom applied for a new research grant on studying bipolar disorders, he kept the students informed about the process to show them how class content and projects were applicable.

"This is a class where they may not use the information for months or years, but I wanted them to know how important it is," Youngstrom said. "It all gets back to the 'G' thing-how can you generalize information to make it useful in their lives," he added.

Created in 1964, the Carl F. Wittke Award is named for Carl F. Wittke, who from 1948-1963 was a professor of history, chairman of that department and a vice president of Western Reserve University. He was a leader in the intellectual life of the University.

All faculty members who teach undergraduates are eligible for the annual award. A committee of students interviews faculty members whom undergraduates nominate for the award and recommends winners.

The awards, which carry a cash prize, are presented in the spring at CWRU's annual undergraduate diploma ceremony.

–CWRU–

 

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