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No bones about it: Skeletons have stories to tell

ckearney — Mon, 26 Oct 2026 20:50:23 +0000

No bones about it: Skeletons have stories to tell ckearney Mon, 10/26/2026 - 16:50

Every October, skeletons come out of the closet for Halloween. They dangle from porches, lounge on front lawns, and rattle their way through “haunted” houses. While the rest of us are getting creeped out or amused, ��ɫ��Ƶ anthropologist Kimberly Foecke sees something entirely different. For her, skeletons are storytellers.

Anthropology professor Kimberly Foecke with a Bones Clones skull in her office. Photo by Colleen Kearney Rich/Office of University Branding.

“Bones are the closest we can get to time travel,” said Foecke, an assistant professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology who teaches biological anthropology.

A lifelong skeleton enthusiast, Foecke has a bone to pick with the idea that skeletons are inherently creepy. “Bones are incredibly important,” she said. “They hold so much information about the life of the person that you're studying--from childhood growth spurts to injuries, illnesses, and even diet.”

According to Foecke, the relationship between humans and skeletons is extensive. “People have had a fascination with keeping skeletons around them for a very long time,” she said.

Throughout history, cultures around the world have maintained close relationships with their dead, wanting to keep their remains nearby. Some visited graves, rearranged bones, or even brought skeletal remains like skulls into ceremonies to maintain connections with ancestors.

But when did bones go from beloved relatives to things that go bump in the night? That's a little harder to pin down. Foecke points to ancient European burial traditions and their overlap with Celtic customs associated with Halloween as possible pieces of the puzzle.

Another possibility involves a fear of vampires. In some communities around the world, archaeologists have found people took extraordinary precautions to ensure their dearly departed stayed buried. Foecke gives examples of bodies being buried with their hands bound or even their heads removed—all in an effort to prevent the dead from rising again.

Hollywood has long understood the entertainment value of a well-placed skeleton—from the pirate crew in Pirates of the Caribbean to Norman Bates's mother in Psycho. But what Foecke finds reassuring is that they rarely appear without some reminder of who they were when they were alive.

“It’s funny to see Hollywood getting things right,” Foecke said. “So even when they're trying to make these skeletons scary, they're still kind of retaining their personhood in a way, which we [anthropologists] really appreciate.”

Bad to the bone? Not in this classroom.

When George Mason students are working in biological anthropology labs, they aren’t touching real bones but plastic casts made from 3D scans of human remains by a company called Bone Clones.

Anthropology professor Kimberly Foecke in her office. Photo by Colleen Kearney Rich/Office of University Branding

“We have a whole series of ethical things going on in the field of biological anthropology right now,” said Foecke. “We’re reexamining the materials we use to teach and the levels of respect that are afforded to individuals who end up in teaching collections either by their own donation or [another way]. We don't hold any human remains in the teaching collections here.”

Yet, for students in Foecke's classes, even getting acquainted with the plastic replicas can be uncomfortable. Foecke said some students arrive with a lifelong fascination with skulls and fossils. Others are a little squeamish. But she hopes to replace that uneasiness with curiosity.

“We turn bones into this sort of fascinating archive of ways to ask questions about the past and to look back in time and see how people lived,” she said.

Students learn what skeletal remains reveal about human evolution and the ways people adapted to their environments. They also explore how different cultures have understood death and cared for their dead.

As ANTH 135 Introduction to Biological Anthropology fulfills a Mason Core natural science requirement, Foecke's classes attract students from across the university, including many who have never considered anthropology as a career.

She said some will discover an unexpected passion for the subject and occasionally a student will change their major. She especially enjoys giving students who have always been fascinated by bones and fossils a place where that curiosity is celebrated.

“I was that kid,” she said.

A lifelong bone collector

Growing up in the Washington, D.C., area, Foecke spent countless hours at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, where the exhibits captured her imagination. As a high school student, she volunteered with the museum's Human Origins Program, where she discovered that studying human evolution could be a career.

Today, her work focuses on finding innovative methods to study archaeological materials and answer questions about the past. As human skeletal remains are irreplaceable records of individual lives and shared history, Foecke is particularly interested in developing ways to learn from these materials without damaging them. She also emphasizes the importance of respecting the deceased and descendant communities when conducting research.

Foecke spends her days surrounded by plastic replicas of skulls and bones, both at home and in her Horizon Hall office. “I've had plumbers come to my house to fix something and my living room's covered in skulls, and it just starts a conversation,” she said.

But when it comes to horror movies, Foecke is decidedly less enthusiastic. “I am not a scary movie person.”

The irony isn't lost on her. For someone who spends so much time thinking about bones, death simply isn't particularly frightening. Instead, she sees it as an opportunity to understand what it means to be human, how we lived in the past, and how we're connected to the people who came before us.

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Former president of Poland Andrzej Duda instructs on executive decision-making in times of crisis

Katarina Benson — Fri, 23 Oct 2026 18:58:21 +0000

Former president of Poland Andrzej Duda instructs on executive decision-making in times of crisis Katarina Benson Fri, 10/23/2026 - 14:58

This fall, former president of Poland Andrzej Duda came to ��ɫ��Ƶ’s Antonin Scalia Law School to teach students a course on executive decision-making in times of crisis.

"Leadership, Democracy, and the Rule of Law,” a two-credit seminar meeting both online and on campus, asked students to consider how they would navigate the legal and practical constraints presidents face during an emergency.

L to R: Former President of Poland Andrzej Duda and Dean Daniel Kelly. Photo provided

Comparing parallel provisions of the U.S. and Polish Constitutions, President Duda explored the differences between Article II’s vesting of executive power and Poland’s “semi-presidential” model. He also challenged students to map out their responses to geopolitical conflicts he experienced firsthand: Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, rapid increases in migration, and escalation in more distant regions like the Middle East.

Courses on constitutional and administrative law typically engage in retrospective analyses of past events. But in this class students were encouraged to think prospectively, working within a given executive model to address ongoing problems.

Students described President Duda as both affable and compelling.

Law student Yan Zhou said, “President Duda lectured for five hours straight without losing the room. He offered perspectives I had never considered, and they pushed me to think more critically.”

“It was an honor and privilege to host President Duda at Scalia Law School,” said Dan Kelly, Allison and Dorothy Rouse Dean of Scalia Law. “His contributions during the seminar provided our students with real-world lessons for how to make decisions on the front lines, and his conversations with faculty and students both inside and outside the classroom provided our community with a unique and valuable perspective.”

President Duda holds an LLB and an LLD from Jagiellonian University in Krakow, where he was also on the Faculty of Law. He held various roles in Poland’s Ministry of Justice, on the Polish State Tribunal, and in the Chancellery of the President from 2005 to 2010. He was elected to the Sejm (the lower house of Poland’s parliament) in 2010 and then to the European Parliament in 2014 before being elected as the sixth President of Poland in 2015, where he served until 2025.

“It was an honor to learn from Dr. Duda,” said third-year law student Ben Gustafson. “I was able to stand in his shoes and contemplate how I might respond to national security threats and handle immense political responsibility. I especially appreciated his candor and honesty in answering any and all of our questions.”

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4-VA project brings 'serious' games to nursing education

Mary Cunningham — Wed, 21 Oct 2026 18:59:04 +0000

4-VA project brings 'serious' games to nursing education Mary Cunningham Wed, 10/21/2026 - 14:59

Undergraduate nursing education often presents students with large content volumes and limited collaborative engagement, particularly in medical‑surgical courses. Yanika Kowitlawakul, associate professor in ��ɫ��Ƶ’s College of Public Health, School of Nursing, saw a unique opportunity to utilize “digital escape room games” (DERGs) to provide an innovative approach to enhance engagement while fostering collaboration, critical thinking, and clinical judgment.

The 4-VA Team: (l to r) Kowitlawakul, Scrivner, James, Brooks, Guingab, Enfield. Photo by Heather Carroll/College of Public Health

After attending a presentation by Virginia Serious Game Institute’s (VSGI) Jacob Enfield at George Mason’s annual Innovations in Teaching and Learning conference, Kowitlawakul was intrigued by the work conducted at VSGI. She recognized the potential to support the design, development, implementation, and evaluation of DERGs aimed at addressing health-related decision making processes in her medical-surgical nursing course. She saw particular value in leveraging these innovative learning approaches to enhance engagement, collaboration, problem-solving skills, and academic performance among undergraduate nursing students.

However, Kowitlawakul reasoned, the effort would be greatly enhanced with a broader wisdom and knowledge base from nursing programs at other 4-VA schools. Consequently, she called upon Gretchen Wiersma, associate professor and Registered Nursing – Bachelor of Science in Nursing Program Coordinator at University of Virginia and Michelle K. Edmonds, associate professor and associate dean of the Undergraduate Nursing Program at Virginia Commonwealth University to join in the 4-VA effort.

Kowitlawakul also included a supporting group of volunteers from the George Mason community including Amanda Brooks, associate professor, BSN and ABSN program coordinator at the School of Nursing, and Terri Ann Guingab, an instructional designer, who both helped develop case scenarios, reviewed prototypes, provided feedback, collected pre- and post-test data, and evaluated and disseminated the results.

Students working on the escape room games. Photo by Heather Carroll/College of Public Health

At VSGI, Enfield recruited and supervised the student workers on game design, conducted the study, and provided feedback throughout the production. Enfield’s students Alexander Scrivner and Alex James served as the project’s game artist and programmer respectively, bringing the games to life.

Kowitlawakul was focused on ensuring the games created a real difference in students’ understanding of protocols, supported by data and results. “Limited evidence exists regarding how variations in game complexity might influence students’ learning experiences and outcomes," she said. "Our study was designed to specifically compare two digital escape room games—one on acute myocardial infarction (AMI) and the other on increased intracranial pressure (ICP)—and closely examine students’ experiential and perceived learning outcomes as well as factors associated with problem-solving confidence.”

Both games were integrated into a 15-week medical-surgical nursing course in spring 2026. Seventy-five students participated in the AMI game, and 52 in the ICP game.

Following that, a cross‑sectional design was employed, incorporating pre‑ and post‑quiz assessments and validated questionnaires. The results indicated that students spent more time and made more incorrect attempts in the ICP game, reflecting its higher complexity.

Both groups demonstrated improved post‑quiz scores, indicating successful knowledge acquisition. Stress levels were higher during the AMI game, which was introduced earlier in the semester. Strong positive correlations were observed among problem‑solving confidence, collaboration, satisfaction, enjoyment, and creativity, particularly in the ICP game, suggesting that increased complexity may further enhance learning outcomes.

The findings of this study have several important implications for nursing education, particularly in medical–surgical courses. First, the results support the integration of DERGs as effective and engaging instructional strategies. Both the AMI and ICP scenarios promoted learning and engagement, suggesting that game-based approaches can enhance students’ active participation and knowledge acquisition in complex clinical topics commonly taught in medical-surgical curricula. Second, the influence of task complexity on performance outcomes highlights the need for careful instructional design. More complex scenarios, such as the ICP DERG, may increase cognitive demand and stress, which can negatively affect learning and confidence.

Third, the findings emphasize the importance of collaborative learning and peer interaction, particularly in early learning experiences. Incorporating structured teamwork and opportunities for discussion can help students build confidence in problem-solving, especially when first introduced to game-based learning strategies. Finally, given the negative impact of stress, especially in more complex scenarios, educators should consider strategies to monitor and manage student stress, such as providing clear instructions, debriefing sessions, and supportive learning environments. This is particularly important in medical-surgical education, where students must develop confidence in managing high-acuity clinical situations.

With the hard work completed, the team is now sharing their findings through a variety of journals and conferences. The response has been very positive and the team has already received requests from nursing schools around the country, as well as China, who have an interest in obtaining the games, creating their own similar games, or want to collaborate in additional work. The group is now preparing proposals for external funding to expand the project.

“This grant not only allowed us to explore scalable, game-based learning strategies that can be shared nationally and internationally, but also strengthened my personal teaching approach,” concluded Kowitlawakul. “Connecting with Gretchen, Michelle, the folks at VSGI, and nursing students was an inspiring experience that brought so many great ideas to the collective table for this project. It was energizing to collaborate with such a diverse and talented group working toward an important goal.”

This story was originally posted on the ��ɫ��Ƶ provost site.

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Terri Ann Guingab, MEd

Amanda Brooks, DNP, FNP-BC

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New Veterans and the Arts Initiative Workshop Helps Veterans Find Camaraderie in the Theater

Tionge Johnson — Wed, 21 Oct 2026 16:23:40 +0000

New Veterans and the Arts Initiative Workshop Helps Veterans Find Camaraderie in the Theater Tionge Johnson Wed, 10/21/2026 - 12:23

This fall, the Veterans and the Arts Initiative at ��ɫ��Ƶ introduced a new workshop: In Service of Theater: A Staged Reading Program for the Military and Veteran Community. Held in several spaces throughout the venue, including the Hylton Center’s Gregory Family Theater, and led by George Mason College of Visual and Performing Arts Dean Rick Davis and the Veterans and the Arts Initiative team, the new staged reading program gives Veterans and service members the opportunity to explore works that focus on military service and bring them to life with fellow members of the military community.

Dean Rick Davis guides participants in the workshop In Service of Theater: A Staged Reading Program for the Military and Veteran Community.

The texts participants read during the six-week program are diverse—drama, poetry, and even a bit of music—reflecting human experiences with war and military duty throughout history and across cultures. They “range from Greek tragedy to modern drama, both serious and satiric, and some classic war poems,” said Davis.

“One of my favorite pieces in the workshop is the Chorus from The Cure at Troy, an adaptation by the great Irish poet Seamus Heaney of a Greek tragedy by Sophocles," he continued. "We are having fun exploring how a Greek Chorus sounds (with a modern translation), splitting up some of the lines and trying to create that sense of the ‘voice of the people’ that we think was the original purpose of the Chorus. I also love the famous World War I poem by Wilfred Owen, ‘Dulce et Decorum Est.’” 

Building a sense of camaraderie is an important part of the workshop process. Davis works on breathing and vocal production in the classes, but participants also work on “listening and speaking with intention.” In a group with such a wide range of ages and experiences, everyone brings different insights, Davis observes, regardless of whether they have acted before or not. No theater experience is required to participate.

Davis and Niyati Dhokai, program director for the Veterans and the Arts Initiative, said that “The common factor is that the community members who have come together for this workshop series have served our country, so what they bring to the texts that they have studied is a profound series of intergenerational reflections on service, war, and the importance of community.”

At the end of the workshop, members of the group will have a chance to present what they have learned during a public performance. But participants receive other valuable takeaways from their time with In Service of Theater: A Staged Reading Program for the Military and Veteran Community.

“As one of the members said on the first day, this kind of workshop gets you out of your comfort zone a little, but in a safe and supportive way,” Davis said. “You can see the connections being made among the participants, how they are there for each other. And they should come away from the workshop with a greater appreciation for the art of performance—and maybe a spark might be kindled in some to keep looking for more opportunities."

The Veterans and the Arts Initiative will be offering a spring session of the workshop in 2027. Keep an eye on the Hylton Center calendar for scheduling and sign-up information.

In Service of Theater: A Staged Reading Program for the Military and Veteran Community is funded in part by Creative Forces®: NEA Military Healing Arts Network, an initiative of the National Endowment in partnership with the U.S. Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs.

Creative Forces Community Engagement Grant program is managed by Mid-America Arts Alliance. 

Presented in partnership with Virginia Department of Veterans Services.

Learn more about the Veterans and the Arts Initiative

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George Mason course brings expertise from audio description pioneer

sbrown79 — Tue, 20 Oct 2026 15:26:32 +0000

George Mason course brings expertise from audio description pioneer sbrown79 Tue, 10/20/2026 - 11:26

In This Story

Rick Davis

Betsy Yancey

For some, accessibility in the arts is a question of philosophy. ��ɫ��Ƶ adjunct professor Joel Snyder approaches the idea more literally.

Snyder is a pioneer in the niche industry of arts audio description—the process of translating the arts into spoken language, making theater, film, dance, and other art forms more accessible for people who are blind or have low vision.

Joel Snyder using a stenomask to audio describe a show. Photo provided.

Snyder has made that skill the center of a new audio description course in the College of Visual and Performing Arts (CVPA). 

He said George Mason stood out as the right place for the first-ever semester-long, for-credit audio description course in the United States because of the university’s existing commitment to accessible arts programming and its willingness to invest in the future of the field.

“I knew there was an interest at George Mason in making the arts events even more accessible,” Snyder said. “I’m thrilled that the university is forging ahead with courses like this."

For Snyder, the class is part of a broader vision for how accessibility should be understood on campuses and beyond: because audio description also enhances the experience of neurodivergent viewers. “It helps people on the autism spectrum, with ADHD, and it helps people who are learning a new language. Audio description builds literacy,” Snyder said.  
   
The course, CVPA 399 Audio Description for the Arts , connects students to a growing archive of audio description history and practice. Snyder donated more than 100 boxes of scripts, recordings, papers, and other materials to University Libraries in order to create a foundation for the Dr. Joel Snyder Audio Description Archive, a first-ever university-based collection of audio description historical materials and production elements. 

Snyder said he hopes the archive will be further digitized and made available to anybody around the world.

“These records provide a solid base to grow the primary source record on the development of audio description and thus accessibility from the last quarter of the 20th century to the present,” said Lynn Eaton, director, Special Collections Research Center. “Dr. Snyder’s donated collection will help current and future historians and researchers with essential documentation of his work and others in helping to make arts more broadly available.” 

There are nine students in the course, including three students who tune in from North Carolina, Texas, and Missouri respectively.

For Betsy Yancey, who has worked as the audience services manager at George Mason’s Center for the Arts (CFA) for 24 years, the course offers a direct connection between the classroom and her day-to-day work.

Betsy Yancey (left) with her former student employees at the Center for the Arts.

“Part of my job is to coordinate access services for our performances—audio description, ASL interpretation, and captioning,” Yancey said. “I’m taking this course because I want to know more about [access services] and potentially be a backup in case our regular audio describer, Ermyn King, is unavailable.”

Her work at CFA includes coordinating with audio describers weeks before a performance, sharing scripts and rehearsal materials, and ensuring patrons can access show information in advance through large-print and screen-reader-friendly materials.

This season, more than 20 CFA performances include audio description, spanning productions in the School of Theater, School of Dance, and School of Music, as well as the professional artists series.

Yancey said she hopes the course encourages students and art professionals to think about accessibility as part of the creative process and not something added at the end.

“It would be great if all of our performing and visual arts departments as well as the companies that we present create the audio description script as they're working on their art because they know the [creator’s] intent,” Yancey said.  

“That's something that the audio describer may not know depending on how much access they've been given to the materials.”

She also sees opportunities for George Mason to expand audio description into digital spaces, including Mason Arts Amplified, the university’s digital arts platform.

"We have a college-wide commitment to making the arts accessible to more people, and Joel Snyder is one of the true founders of a key element of this mission, audio description,” said CVPA Dean Rick Davis. “His passion for this mission is stronger than ever after more than four decades of pioneering research and practice, and we're honored to have him with us."

Marybeth Haneline at the Kreeger Theater at Arena Stage audio describing CrazySexyCool: The TLC Musical. Photo provided.

Marybeth Haneline, who is auditing the course through George Mason’s Senior Citizen Tuition Wavier program, brings another perspective to the course.

She is now in her third season as a volunteer with the Metropolitan Washington Ear audio description program, a program Snyder spearheaded in the 1980s. Haneline, who has audio described dozens of shows, said the class will allow her to apply what she’s learning to live performance. 

For her final project, Haneline plans to audio describe Frida: A Self Portrait at Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington, D.C., where she is also currently enrolled in the Salon Series, an interactive, behind-the-scenes program.

Haneline plans to use the Laban/Bartenieff Movement System, a comprehensive movement framework, to audio describe the show.

“It's really the perfect show for this project,” said Haneline. “The solo performer is trained in the Suzuki Method and there are these movement pieces that provide space for me to develop a script and do something useful.”

Snyder hopes students leave the course with practical skills they can use in professional settings.

“I hope they build the skillset of writing, voicing, and audio editing descriptions for professional work,” Snyder said. “Audio describers, the writers, and the voice talents are in great demand.”

He also hopes audio description continues to expand across George Mason, including in visual art spaces. 

“If there's an art exhibit on campus, there should be audio descriptions of those images available,” Snyder said.

As the course gains momentum after several semesters of planning, Snyder sees George Mason as part of a much larger shift—one that treats access as a creative and educational responsibility.

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Skills-focused academic minor programs prepare George Mason students for the workforce

Susan Martonik — Wed, 14 Oct 2026 16:33:19 +0000

Skills-focused academic minor programs prepare George Mason students for the workforce Susan Martonik Wed, 10/14/2026 - 12:33

In today’s competitive job market, students are increasingly looking for ways to distinguish themselves in the eyes of potential employers. To help its graduates gain a competitive edge, ��ɫ��Ƶ is strengthening students’ career readiness through its specialized workforce-ready minor programs. To date, 34 programs are available—and more are on the way.

“These programs provide students with an opportunity to enter the workforce equipped with the practical skills and experiences that employers seek,” said Elizabeth Loun, program manager for university internships in the Undergraduate Education. “They are also highly accessible. In many cases, students can earn a workforce-ready minor by completing only a few additional courses before graduation.”

George Mason’s workforce-ready minor programs currently span seven schools and colleges. They are designed to complement any major, and all programs include internship-based courses and career-relevant assignments, giving students the opportunity to gain practical experience and ensuring career readiness. Available minors include environmental consulting, government contracting, nonprofit studies, renewable energy, leadership, arts management, and more. These programs are designated in the course catalog for the first time this fall, making them easier for students to identify and explore.

Photo by Evan Cantwell/Office of University Branding

The workforce-ready minors are strategically aligned with high-demand occupations identified by the Virginia Career and Technical Education Resource Center, a Virginia Department of Education-funded initiative that helps ensure that academic programs remain connected to the needs of employers across the commonwealth. These occupations are grouped into 17 career clusters—including energy, health sciences, information technology, and government and public administration—and represent 83 distinct career pathways.

“In the years ahead, we anticipate significant growth within these career clusters,” said Loun. “By helping students develop in-demand skills, our workforce-ready minor programs prepare George Mason students to pursue opportunities in these fields and contribute as future leaders.”

To expand access to career-focused learning opportunities across the curriculum, George Mason launched the Workforce-Ready Minors initiative earlier this year. Through the initiative, faculty members received stipends to modify programs, enhance courses, or create internship courses.

In the School of Art, Professor John von Bergen used the grant to redesign AVT 462 Advanced Sculpture, an upper-level course that teaches students advanced 3D fabrication techniques used in contemporary creative industries. With the Workforce-Ready Minors program, von Bergen enhanced the course to have a career-relevant focus each week. Throughout the semester, students create presentation materials tailored to careers in art, design, fabrication, and creative technology, participate in resume workshops, and engage with industry professionals to gain real-world experience and build professional networks. This course is scheduled to be offered in fall 2027.

“We received a tremendous response to our call for proposals this spring and summer,” said Loun. “The strong interest from faculty enabled us to double the number of workforce-ready minor programs in just a few months. In some cases, existing programs already met the workforce-ready minor criteria and required no additional funding.”

She continued, “With a final round of grants being distributed this fall, we look forward to building on this momentum and broadening our portfolio of offerings even further.”

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Playing it out: A new way to teach health economics

Heather Carroll — Wed, 07 Oct 2026 17:49:22 +0000

Playing it out: A new way to teach health economics Heather Carroll Wed, 10/07/2026 - 13:49

In Phillip Zane’s ��ɫ��Ƶ classroom, students weigh an invitation to jump out of an airplane. The skydiving lesson and jump are free, and the exercise assumes there is zero risk of death. But an injury could mean $10,000 in medical expenses and $1,000 in lost wages.

Some have health insurance. Others don’t. Everyone has to decide whether to take the leap.

Phillip Zane presenting to students during class
Photo by Heather Carroll/College of Public Health

The imaginary jump brings a question of health economics within reach: how insurance can change the risks people are willing to take, and what happens when those choices add up across a health care system.

Zane, an associate professor in the Department of Health Administration, Policy, and Informatics, has built his Health Economics and Policy course around such experiments, pulling students into questions that can seem abstract or remote on a textbook page.

He and his colleagues, including associate professor Debora Goetz Goldberg, describe the approach in a new paper, “More Than a Game,” published in a special issue of The Journal of Health Administration Education focused on gamification.

Course evaluations from 129 students between 2022 and 2025 suggest the approach resonated: About 89 percent found the class environment engaging, and 85 percent said the teaching methods enhanced their learning.

In written feedback, students said the games clarified challenging concepts and exposed them to classmates’ different approaches.

Invitation to play

Students participating in Zane's class
Photo by Mary Cunningham

The idea took hold during a summer of online teaching in 2022, when most students kept their cameras off. Zane wanted a way to keep them engaged. “It’s a topic that I love, but they didn’t seem to get it,” he said.

Many of his health administration students came to the course with little background or interest in economics. Game theory—which examines how people make decisions when their outcomes depend on others’ choices—offered a way in. A former antitrust lawyer, Zane had used its principles in the past to help clients decide whether to settle lawsuits. Now he thought it might help students understand the economic forces underpinning health care.

Zane started with the “ultimatum game,” a well-established experiment in which one party offers to divide a financial windfall with another. In his version, Kit Kats stand in for cash. One student makes a proposal to their classmate, who can accept it or turn it down, with a rejection leaving both empty-handed. As it turns out, some students would rather get nothing than accept an unfair share—prompting a discussion about why fairness can outweigh personal gain.

From there, Zane began adding more exercises, some adapted from existing game-theory models and others of his own design, and adjusting according to student feedback.

Students listening to Zane during class. Photo by Mary Cunningham/College of Public Health

In his original orange juice game, students are assigned to groups with different levels of competition, from a single seller with a monopoly to a crowded market with many sellers. Zane tells each group he will pay up to $5 for a bottle of juice. The monopolist can hold near that ceiling, while competing sellers must undercut each other. In the most crowded market, the price can fall close to zero, showing students how competition drives down prices.

The games are only part of the lesson. After playing, students explain their choices and compare their reasoning with others in the class. Reading those reflections helped Zane see whether the economic lessons were landing.

“It became pretty clear that most of the students were getting it,” he said.

In addition to Zane and Golberg, additional co-authors to the paper were doctoral students Shaan Muberra Khan and Sravya Vunnam of the Department of Health Administration, Policy, and Informatics.

The Journal of Health Administration Education special issue also features HAPI professor John Cantiello and associate professor Renee Geschke’s research on case-based learning.

Key Takeaways

George Mason associate professor Phillip Zane uses games and simulations to teach health economics.
A new journal article by Zane describes the teaching approach as part of a special issue on gamification.
In evaluations, most students found the learning environment engaging and said the teaching methods helped them learn.

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Phillip Zane, JD

Debora Goetz Goldberg, PhD, MHA, MBA

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This course turns climate science into real-world impact for Virginia communities

ckearney — Tue, 21 Jul 2026 20:32:10 +0000

This course turns climate science into real-world impact for Virginia communities ckearney Tue, 07/21/2026 - 16:32

What difference does a tree make? That’s what ��ɫ��Ƶ researcher Luis Ortiz wanted to find out—before it was planted. Cities increasingly experience extreme heat that poses danger to anyone outside. The urban environment, even on a very small scale, can either help alleviate the problem or make it vastly worse.

Professor Luis Ortiz with his Micrometeorological Modeling class. Photo by Ron Aira/Office of University Branding

“We teach students the fundamentals of how the broader weather interacts with very, very local aspects of the built environment,” said Ortiz, who teaches in George Mason’s J. Shukla Department of Atmospheric, Oceanic, and Earth Sciences. “By very, very local, I mean, what happens if I put a certain tree in one location, or if I apply a coating to a building’s surface to reflect the sun.”

Ortiz’s course, CLIM 759 Micrometeorological Modeling for Local Climate Action, targets “hyperlocal” community needs. It’s a way of taking research out of the lab and into the real world where it can have immediate impact. Ortiz and other professors—in collaboration with George Mason’s Institute for a Sustainable Earth—piloted a model to create classes that work almost like nonprofit start-ups with municipalities and neighborhood groups as clients.

“We are meeting communities where they are and figuring out what their needs are related to weather hazards on heat, flooding, and air pollution. This is all based on the extensive community engagement that we've been doing with the Virginia Climate Center,” said Ortiz, who is the codirector of the VCC.

This is the second year that Ortiz is offering the graduate-level class, which is open to every major. The students work individually with community groups to study their needs and model the outcomes of various interventions. Last year, students worked with South Side ReLeaf in Richmond to model extreme heat zones around schools and shopping centers. This year, they ran individual projects with the cities of Fairfax, Alexandria, and Arlington, as well as Groundwork USA. These stakeholders were all invited to a day of final presentations at the end of the semester.

“The students are learning urban microclimate physics, as well as the software and models needed to understand them and answer real-world questions,” said Ortiz.

The course is truly interdisciplinary, attracting students majoring in fields from across the university, including GIS, civil engineering, mathematics, and fluid dynamics. They use social science methods to determine the communities’ needs.

Ivy Stempkovski, a climate dynamics PhD student who helped develop the course and is now taking it, created models to evaluate how public water features, such as splash parks, help kids cool down.

“My peers are thinking of things that never would have crossed my radar,” said Stempkovski. “That’s important because the whole goal is to make sure that we're maximizing impact for our community partner and the community themselves. If it weren't for the different perspectives, I think we could risk falling short. For instance, the engineers take a more practical perspective, and the GIS students know more about zoning laws.”

Gavin Middleton, a PhD student in earth and geoinformation sciences, took the course in its first year. His models revealed startling facts about how a lack of green spaces increased citizens’ susceptibility to heat stroke.

“The area I was looking at was an elementary school,” said Middleton. “This school was right next to a six-lane road that had no trees. We found that if kids were walking down that road in the middle of the summer heat, there was about a 5 percent chance that you got a heat stroke on any one kid.”

Other projects showed high risks of heat stroke and asthma attacks around unshaded shopping complexes with large parking lots, as well as bus stops where people would have to wait for long periods with no relief.

“I would say that it was a very important experience to actually get to know the people that my science affected,” said Middleton. “It's definitely not something you see at every university.”

Ortiz built the course as part of his work at the VCC and based it on the lean start-up model for businesses.

"Our students are both learning state-of-the-art modeling techniques and using them to answer important questions for stakeholders in the commonwealth and beyond,” he said. “With this model, students work on real-world problems, and our partners get access to science-backed data and insights to help them build stronger, more resilient communities.”

This research supports the Grand Challenge Initiative's goal of building a more climate-resilient society.

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The AI-powered classroom: tutors, avatars, and new models for learning

Mary Cunningham — Thu, 09 Jul 2026 19:17:45 +0000

The AI-powered classroom: tutors, avatars, and new models for learning Mary Cunningham Thu, 07/09/2026 - 15:17

As health informatics expert Sanja Avramovic introduces new artificial intelligence (AI) tools into her classrooms at ��ɫ��Ƶ, she's also made a point of asking students what they think, both through formal research and casual conversation.

In one early experiment, Avramovic designed AI avatars to present course material in short, on-demand videos students could watch at their own pace. Some students balked a little, finding the digital instructors monotone and robotic. They said they preferred a human.

So Avramovic asked a follow-up question: Should she remove the videos?

AI avatar created by Sanja Avramovic. Image created by AI.

"They said, 'don't you dare,'" she recalled. "'They're excellent supplemental material. Leave them. But we want you to teach.'"

That push and pull has become a central dynamic at the College of Public Health, as faculty respond and adapt to the undeniable rise of AI in higher education. The question is no longer whether AI belongs in the classroom, but how to use it in ways that actively benefit students.

“The goal isn’t AI-free learning,” Avramovic said. “It’s AI-augmented thinking.”

Learning to think with AI

Sanja Avramovic, assistant professor in the Department of Health Administration and Policy

One challenge is persistent: How do you keep students learning when AI can provide answers in seconds?

Research by Avramovic, assistant professor in the Department of Health Administration and Policy Abdul Hafeez, and colleagues found that students can become overly dependent on AI-generated answers, reducing their engagement, interaction, and critical thinking.

Rather than prohibiting AI use, faculty developed and tested AI tutors that function more like coaches than answer generators, walking students through assignments one step at a time. In order to build them, instructors map out common mistakes and teach the systems how to respond in ways that promote deeper learning. “It interviews students,” Hafeez said. “It compels them to think critically.”

Early findings suggest this approach can help counter passive AI use, with students showing stronger performance and engagement than their peers. In one analysis, undergraduates using the tutors improved performance by nearly 9 percentage points. This research was supported by George Mason's Stearns Center for Teaching and Learning Curriculum and Teaching Leadership Funds.

Tempering the trust

Along with the enthusiasm for AI’s potential, faculty are just as focused on teaching students where the technology falls short.

Vanessa Chee, an assistant professor in the Department of Global and Community Health, warns students against relying on it too early in the learning process, likening it to “using roller blades when you’re crawling.”

In one global health course, Chee requires students to develop a 2,500-word narrative and a presentation proposing a public health intervention entirely on their own. Afterward, they use AI to generate a version of the same project, and compare the two.

That exercise is often revealing. Many students walk away disappointed by the quality of the generated work, but with a sharper understanding of what their own thinking contributes, Chee said.

Katherine Scafide, an associate professor in the School of Nursing, introduces AI early in the research process, using it to help students scan the literature and identify possible gaps worth investigating. But she draws a line between assistance and analysis. Students are expected to verify sources, refine their own research questions, and critically test whether AI summaries actually hold up.

"I encourage AI to assist in some structural aspects of writing, like outlining and grammar, but not to author the work," she said. " AI can be a writing tool, but it cannot be an author."

For Avramovic, the biggest concern is that students will trust AI too quickly. She recalled one student who relied heavily on AI while studying, learned flawed logic, and then repeated it on an exam.

“Don’t use AI until you know enough to correct it,” she tells her students.

Rebuilding the classroom

As AI changes how students learn, faculty are also rethinking how they create and deliver their own course content.

With one undergraduate health informatics class, Avramovic and colleagues realized that much of the content felt disconnected from the clinical realities that nursing students—who are required to take the course—would eventually face. So, the instructors used AI tools to rewrite assignments around nursing-specific scenarios, like identifying problems in electronic health records. They also introduced AI-generated videos narrated by digital avatars, guiding students through technical material.

The updates made a difference. Nursing students in the AI-redesigned course showed statistically significant learning gains, more than half said AI-generated videos were more helpful than assigned readings, and nearly four out of five reported that the tools improved their overall learning experience.

Farrokh Alemi, a professor in the Department of Health Administration and Policy, took a similar approach in his graduate statistics course, using AI to help deliver lectures and tutor students.

For students, the change meant more access to their instructor. “Because the AI handled a lot of mechanical tasks, I used the extra time to have more interactions with students, give them career advice, call up at-risk students, just be more available,” he said.

Evolving the toolkit

Faculty at the College of Public Health compare the current moment to earlier technological shifts in education, from the arrival of calculators in math classrooms to the rise of the internet and online learning.

Students still need to learn the fundamentals, faculty said, but once they understand the underlying concepts, AI can help them explore more complex problems and apply knowledge in new ways.

“You still need the human in the loop,” Avramovic said.

The technology continues to evolve quickly. But faculty say the larger goal remains to help students build the skills they’ll need in a world where AI is already becoming part of the job.

Key Takeaways

George Mason College of Public Health faculty are using artificial intelligence tools including AI tutors and digital avatars to enhance teaching and student learning.
Instead of prohibiting tools like ChatGPT, instructors are teaching students to think critically, verify AI outputs, and use AI responsibly.
AI is helping redesign courses, personalize learning, and prepare College of Public Health students for an AI-integrated workforce.

In This Story

Sanja Avramovic, PhD

Katherine Scafide, PhD, RN, FAAN, FAAFS

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George Mason anthropology students test ancient tools — and earn points for spear throwing

Katarina Benson — Thu, 11 Jun 2026 22:31:49 +0000

George Mason anthropology students test ancient tools — and earn points for spear throwing Katarina Benson Thu, 06/11/2026 - 18:31

To Kimberly Foecke, studying the past doesn’t need to be a passive experience.

The ��ɫ��Ƶ assistant professor of anthropology believes in the importance of hands-on learning so much that she created the ANTH 399 Experimental Archaeology course on experimental archaeology to help bridge theory and practice.

This past spring, undergraduate and graduate students got their hands dirty with a variety of experiments in the field that tested theory discussed in the classroom.

Students created new versions of old tech in their archaeology labs. Photo by Haagen D. Klaus.

Foecke’s course pushes critical thinking and experimental design while focusing on the themes of innovation of technology, exploiting and processing food resources, and cultural and social transmission of knowledge--all subjects she says are applicable and transferrable to other areas of study.

“I think active learning is so important,” Foecke said. “All of these experiments we do have information we can then project back into the archaeological record. This is interspersed with lecture where we talk about how to design experiments for different types of material that we find in the record. This helps students to understand how to test the capabilities of ancient technology and other archaeological items we find and create testable predictions for the artifacts.”

Labs included flint knapping, the art of creating tools out of stone. Students struck obsidian sent from one of Foecke’s peers in Kenya into a sharp flake and used their new tool to cut chicken feet. They also created scale buildings to test the load-bearing capacity of different roof types through experimental architecture, and they cooked ancient recipes for adhesives to test strength, longevity, and flexibility to use for hunting tools.

“I’ve done things in this class I’ve never done before,” anthropology junior Sophia Taylor said. “I got to process oats with a big slab of slate and a grinding stone. I never thought my wrists would be sore from something like that, but I’m finding out new knowledge every day.”

The class culminated with experimental spear throwing on the lawn next to the Mason Pond parking garage at the end of April. Wielding replicated ancient spears that Foecke constructed at her father’s woodshop in Maryland, her students conducted accuracy and penetration tests.

Foecke created a hands-on spear workshop for students. Photo by Haagen D. Klaus.

“It is a nice break, a nice change having the hands-on,” anthropology graduate student Chuck Tjersland said. “It’s different and really does play a role. You read enough about experimental archaeology filling in some of the gaps.”

Added Tjersland’s class partner, anthropology undergraduate student David Rubalacaba: “How often do you throw spears for a grade?”

Foecke set up targets—featuring a drawing of a wooly mammoth—and hoops for students to throw wooden spears through. Each student attempted five throws, recording points for each target struck.

Foecke said the experiment displays what ancient civilizations encountered when having to use sticks that aren’t the most aerodynamic and while facing tough weather conditions. “They’re learning how difficult it is to throw a non-ideal spear and hit a target first time, every time,” Foecke said. “It is almost impossible, even for professional javelin throwers.”

Another station featured stabbing blocks made from insulated foam. Students tested the differences in cut size using two types of spears: one just whittled on one end and the other with an arrowhead stone attached to the end. The experiment showed that the spear with the arrowhead always made a wider and more jagged cut.

Both the spear throwing and spear stabbing experiments tried to answer the “why.” Why spend all this time throwing a spear with a high miss rate? Why take so much time flint knapping or carving stones to attach to sticks when whittling would only take five minutes?

“That animal bleeds out more quickly and therefore you eat dinner sooner,” Foecke said. “It is these kinds of questions around something weird in the record that we have to explain. We have to explain why and what the process is that causes us to see that pattern in the archaeological record. Experimental archaeology is all about creating predictions and hypotheses for why we see the patterns that we do and the processes that we do.

“This is the favorite part of my job. I love to teach, and I love to create cool experiences in the classroom.”

Students throwing spears. Photo by Haagen D. Klaus.

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