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\u201cI had a huge rock collection,\u201d Pockalny recalls. He held onto this mineral love but also some of that deep sea terror, describing the ocean thusly: \u201cIt\u2019s vast and I\u2019m still petrified of it. It\u2019s very intimidating. I like to study the rocks, the wet rocks. The water kinda gets in my way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now, however, Pockalny is responsible for a lot more than stones. The oceanographer has been at GSO since 1995 as a marine research scientist. Recently, he became the associate dean of academic and student affairs.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s mostly making sure students get through in a timely manner\u2026[and that] students have access to resources they need to get their degree,\u201d Pockalny explains. \u201c[I] let the students know they have a catalog of courses that is predictable, but is flexible at the same time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even over Zoom, Pockalny\u2019s affability is obvious, as is his insight and empathy for the learning process. \u201cI was not good in class,\u201d he says. \u201cI mean, I always got my grades. But I didn\u2019t really learn anything.\u201d<\/p>\n
What Pockalny did remember was experiences. To his new role, Pockalny brings a sensitivity for different learning styles and needs. He notes the sciences are often a bastion for people who \u201cdon\u2019t really learn the \u2018normal\u2019 way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pockalny\u2019s own route to oceanography was somewhat zigzag. As an undergrad in Buffalo\u2019s State University of New York, he learned marine biology wasn\u2019t as lucrative as earth science. \u201c[This was] back in the oil boom\u2026I quickly became a geologist after that,\u201d he says with a laugh.<\/p>\n
In 1985, Pockalny missed an admission deadline to GSO, only to be invited to join a research cruise. Another invite followed\u2014and then another. Cruises took Pockalny to Bermuda, Cape Town, Rio and Acapulco. Eventually, he graduated GSO with a Ph.D. in oceanography in 1991, taking special interest in plate tectonics and seafloor morphology along the way.<\/p>\n
Pockalny\u2019s as interested in pedagogy as he is geology.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve never taken a faculty position because my interests don\u2019t fit in any one slot,\u201d he says. \u201cI really enjoy my research, but I also enjoy curriculum development\u2026and creating courses.\u201d<\/p>\n
He glowingly describes his experience as a co-principal investigator for GEMS-Net, a professional development project for K-12 teachers to improve their science tutelage.<\/p>\n
Pockalny got schooled himself by these teachers. He \u201clearned so much\u201d from the ways they \u201cused their skillset to get points across,\u201d helping him find \u201ca framework for instruction that I wanted to pass on to my colleagues.\u201d<\/p>\n
One template he gained is \u201cFocus, explore, reflect, and apply,\u201d which some of Pockalny\u2019s peers have since adapted. \u201cIt\u2019s great to see my own colleagues pick these things up\u2026and have it guide them in their own quest to be better instructors,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
In Jaws\u2019 spiritual predecessor Moby Dick, Herman Melville wrote: \u201cConsider the subtleness of the sea; how its most dreaded creatures glide under water\u2026treacherously hidden beneath the loveliest tints of azure.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pockalny\u2019s long scrutinized what\u2019s \u201ctreacherously hidden beneath.\u201d Now he\u2019s in the position to empower even more students to do the same, in the way they learn best.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Meet (again) Rob Pockalny as he assumes the duties of associate dean By Alexander Castro It\u2019s 1975, and Steven Spielberg\u2019s Jaws has inaugurated a shark trend with gallons of fresh blood. Like many a middle-schooler, Rob Pockalny is fascinated by the fearsome fish, and opts for sharks as the subject for his term paper. Pockalny […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2120,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[7,1987],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-180916","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aboard-gso","category-publications"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/gso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180916","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/gso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/gso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/gso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2120"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/gso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=180916"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/gso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180916\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":180923,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/gso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180916\/revisions\/180923"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/gso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=180916"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/gso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=180916"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/gso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=180916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}