Michel Wattiaux has been a member of the Department of Dairy Science faculty since 2000, and is this year’s recipient of the Spitzer Excellence in Teaching Award. Over the past two decades, Wattiaux has worked tirelessly to improve the educational experience of undergraduate students in the Department of Dairy Science, the Department of Animal Sciences, the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences and across UW–Madison. His impact reaches beyond the development and teaching of his courses through leadership positions in committees, programs, and initiatives at the department, college, university and national levels.
Wattiaux has taught more than 1,600 students in 107 separate semester-long course offerings in the last 20 years. He has contributed substantially to improvement in curriculum not only in the dairy science department but also in CALS, including serving on the CALS curriculum committee and chairing the dairy science curriculum committee.
Wattiaux has developed eight new courses, and his focus has been on “student-based” learning. The active learning strategies promoted by Wattiaux require full engagement by both student and instructor and result in a two-way flow of knowledge, ideas and opinions that benefits both parties. His mastery of “discussion-based classroom” is evidenced by student course evaluations and assessments that are consistently above departmental peers.