Don’t fall asleep in this professor’s class or you may get hit in the face with a Nerf ball
Students of Professor Joel Pederson depict his style of teaching in one word: brutal. Not so much as a professor of geomorphology, but as a tyrant for inattentiveness. Let him explain himself:
“I teach a large USU 1360 class, and every day I try to do something to keep my students alert and awake,” he said. “I often bring a Nerf football to class. So I will usually ask the students a question and then whoever gets hit by the ball has to answer it.”
He said one day last year, his class was especially long and monotonous so he decided to provide some entertainment by throwing the football.
“For some reason I decided to hike the football to the class. So I bent over, which was embarrassing enough, and hiked it really hard so it would reach the back of the classroom. Instead, I ended up hitting a girl in the front row right in the face. Her glasses flew off and her books scattered all over.”
Thankfully she didn’t get hurt, he said, but the attention of the class was ruined for the day. He said he dismissed the class early and was forever grateful the football was only made of foam.
“Every year in my attempts to be entertaining in class, I do something horribly embarrassing,” he said.
Pederson grew up in Minnesota in a town similar to Cache Valley, except for the unfortunate fact that natural landscapes were hard to come by.
“The place I grew up was all farmland- nothing but fields. You couldn’t find anything that looked even remotely like a natural landscape,” he said. “Part of my interest in the field of geology I am in came from having been deprived of it as a kid.”
He said his family would go on summer vacations to the Black Hills and the Rocky Mountains, and it was “mind-blowing” to see places where the land wasn’t farmed yet.
“As a kid growing up in a place so unnatural and unlike this area of the country, a place like Cache Valley really makes an impression,” he said. “I think people who grow up in Utah are spoiled because they rarely realize what they have. They forget how unusual and spectacular this setting is.”
“For me, Utah was so unique and special that I wanted to study the area,” he said.
Pederson said he enjoys teaching at Utah State University for several reasons, but the location is one of his favorite aspects of the job.
“As a geologist, the location here is unusual and ideal,” he said. “In my geomorphology class, our first lab is simply walking around campus. I couldn’t do that anywhere else. In a two-hour field trip I can show my students almost every single geomorphic process because there is so much right outside the door.”
“I can’t think of a better setting,” he said. “The area makes it incredibly easy to teach a good class.”
While he said almost all his hobbies are closely related to his research interests in geology, he and his wife enjoy a few diverse forms of entertainment.
“My wife and I really enjoy movies and film,” he said. “In fact, last night we watched a movie made right here in the area called ‘Napoleon Dynamite.’ I thought it was fantastic, and I imagine it will end up on my list of top 20 favorite movies.”
It is evident Pederson enjoys what he is doing at USU, and he said he has a little advice for students looking forward to future careers.
“I have noticed that college-aged kids mainly concentrate on finding a major with a successful employment future these days, and I worry that students forget they can also do something they enjoy,” he said. “I believe those people who are most happy are the people who not only have a job, but have a job they enjoy doing. If you find something you enjoy, you’ll invariably be successful.”
Pederson has taken his own advice to heart, and his co-workers are well aware.
“Joel has an excellent track record of involving undergraduates in high-profile, publishable research since he came to Utah State,” Bradley Ritts, assistant professor of geology, said. “He’s probably the most dedicated to undergraduate research in a department that encourages undergraduate involvement in research.”
Carol Dehler, also an assistant professor of geology and the wife of Pederson, said it is impossible to sum up what she finds interesting and admirable about her husband.
“One of the main reasons I admire him is that he is consistently patient, objective and a great listener,” she said. “Plus, he has a great sense of humor.”
-LexieK@cc.usu.edu