College of Education and Human Development - George Mason University

Bring on the Ice! Dr. Banville Merges Love of Winter Sports with Teaching

February 14, 2014

With the Winter Olympics in full swing, interest in the sport of curling is sky high!

Dominique Banville, associate professor in the College of Education and Human Development at George Mason University, has been interviewed in several recent news reports, including the Washington Post, Baltimore Sun, NBC News4, and more.

Enjoy the article below written by Justin Lafreniere for Mason News and the terrific photos by Mason Creative Services.

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Dominique Banville loves the Winter Olympics. During the run of the games in Sochi this year, some of her favorite sports take the world stage; among them, the oddity that is curling.

 

Growing up in Canada, Banville wasn’t a curler like her father. She was a skier. It wasn’t until she moved to Northern Virginia that she actually came into the ice-based sport that befuddles Americans every four years.

“I had only thrown stones three times in my life” before joining the Potomac Curling Club, then housed at Cabin John Ice Rink in Maryland, Banville admitted. Not long after came the creation of the National Capital Curling Center in Laurel, Md., where one can find ice dedicated to curling.

For the club, Olympic years are busy years. Banville estimates that 1,000 people attempted to come to the club’s open houses during the 2006 Turino Olympics in part because of the women’s team’s success at Salt Lake in 2002. “They were pretty, and they did well,” Banville says. The team just missed the podium, placing fourth overall, and spurred interest in the sport.

The open houses this year are expected to be almost as busy for the club. And that same Olympic spirit that will bring in the public gave Banville the idea to make create an open house for her CEHD faculty and staff. On recent one Saturday afternoon, Banville shared her love of the sport with her Mason colleagues at the center.

While Mason doesn’t teach curling, Banville often uses it as an example in her classes, such as Curriculum Development and Assessment in Physical Education (PHED 672) and Motor Learning and Performance (PHED-306). In the latter class, students complete labs that help them understand how the human body learns. One of her favorite labs includes a vigorous disproving of multitasking.

For the multitasking exercise, Banville puts a series of lines of the floor; students are expected to walk and touch each with their foot. Then, as they repeat the path, she has them balance a tennis ball on a racquet. Next comes the phones, and students must attempt to call themselves. The last stop is to have them say the alphabet, while calling themselves, while balancing a tennis ball, and while walking the path and touching the lines.

“It’s a little much for the brain,” Banville jokes.

Other class labs demonstrate reaction time and decision-making in ways that make the lessons not only informative but fun and interactive. When not teaching, Banville serves on the Faculty Senate, and on the university’s General Education and Academic Policy Committees, while actively seeking more responsibility at the university outside of her professorial role. It’s the determined work ethic often found in athletes.

As for the Olympics, Banville is excited about curling briefly holding a place in the national discourse, if only as a bit of intrigue. The Canadian men’s team is expected to do well this year, and she is also following hockey (“I’m Canadian; it’s in my blood.”) and her first love, skiing.

 


About CEHD

George Mason University's College of Education and Human Development (CEHD) includes two schools: the Graduate School of Education, one of the largest teacher preparation and education schools in Virginia, and the School of Recreation, Health, and Tourism. CEHD offers a comprehensive range of degrees, certificates, courses, and licensure programs on campus, online, and on site. The college is distinguished by faculty who encourage new ways of thinking and pioneering research supported by more than $75 million in funding over the past five years.

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