UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Two faculty members in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences have been named the recipients of the 2021 Roy C. Buck Faculty Award, which recognizes exceptional articles accepted or published by refereed scholarly journals in the social and human sciences within the past two years.
Kevin Curry Jr., assistant professor of agricultural and extension education, and Robert Chiles, assistant professor of rural sociology, received the award, which includes a $2,500 stipend and plaque. The professors, both part of the Department of Agricultural Economics, Sociology, and Education, will be recognized at a special seminar presentation delivered by each of the awardees on their published outcomes.
As the lead author on the paper, “Utility Value Interventions in a College Biology Lab: The Impact on Motivation,” published in the Journal of Research in Science Teaching, Curry examined the utility value of science writing, such as lab reports, in college settings.