Beveryly Bunch-Lyons

Beveryly Bunch-Lyons joined the History Department in 1995, after receiving her doctorate at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. History Department Chair Albert Moyer suggests that since coming to Virginia Tech, Bunch-Lyons has "expanded her legacy of excellence in the classroom" and has introduced "pertinent and engaging classroom projects into large survey classes where lectures are the norm." Indeed, the Diggs selection committee was impressed and fascinated by her nine touchstones for good teaching and the detailed planning and understanding that goes into her projects. Colleagues and students at Virginia Tech and other Universities describe her as "talented and dedicated," showing a very high level of expertise and creativity in the classroom.

Professor Bunch-Lyons' skillfully conceived and executed projects include a study of the Great Depression, in which students actually shop for groceries on a depression-era budget and prepare food from a menu of depression-era recipes. Others involve the use of scavenger hunts in the library, novels to teach African-American Women's History, oral history, and service learning. Her methods focus on active learning that teaches students to use and understand primary materials and comprehensive research. Bunch-Lyons embodies the Teacher-Scholar whose understanding of her subject is fully integrated in the classroom and whose teaching is fully integrated with her research and a model of best practice. For the Fall Roundtable, Bunch-Lyons will discuss her active learning exercises and cooperative learning.