Roberto Salguero-Gomez                                                                                                              Philadelphia, October 13th 2009

My commitment to academia is my honest sincere top priority, and my ultimate goal is to excel as a scientist in a way that will make a real impact in the biological sciences. Throughout my experience at The the University of Pennsylvania I have come to learn a very valuable lesson: passing on knowledge is just as important as the very action of acquiring it. For that reason, I take my teaching responsibilities as seriously as my own doctoral research. My philosophy of teaching is built upon formulating questions rather than answers, on truly getting to know my students’ concerns and aspirations, and using these, together with my own enthusiasm for ecology and evolution, to motivate them to reason in a scientific manner - whether about biology or some other field. I believe in continuous evaluation and innovative approaches to teaching biology.

Now at the beginning of my fifth year in the program of Ecology, Evolution and Biodiversity of the Department of Biology at UPenn, I have already built up extensive teaching experience at both the undergraduate, post-bac and graduate levels. At the undergraduate level, I have been the laboratory teaching assistant for an introductory undergraduate course in animal physiology and evolution (BIOL102) five times, the last three times serving as the head teaching assistant. Additionally, I have been the laboratory teaching assistant of BIO102 for the Collegue of Graduate Studies. At the upper-undergraduate/graduate level, I have also taught three times in a field trip course in conservation biology (BIOL465). As a result of my several TA positions, thus far I have interacted closely with over 650 students of various backgrounds and educational levels. The outcome of such an interaction has been the realization of my privileged situation as well as the understanding of the huge impact my actions may have on the future of my students. I have come to realize that I am privileged to be in the position to teach so many students and that my actions may influence their futures.

In the teaching tandem of content vs thinking, I place more importance on the latter one. Of course I am fully aware that Biology is known for its wide range of difficult vocabulary, convoluted structures, complicated processes and structure, and consequently I seek to make sure my students understand this basic factual information. However, as a professional of the sciences, my ultimate goal when teaching is to provide my students with the lenses of inquiry, objectivity and rationality, which I believe to be a very useful tools regardless of their eventual profession. Furthermore, at the end of each course I do not expect that all my students will become biologists – such an expectation would be pretty unrealistic – rather that they will become independent thinkers. I nurture this by encouraging students to think independently and scientifically on how to analyze a problem, anticipate potential troubles, and more importantly, to question in a polite manner established knowledge (with a particular emphasis on the figure of the teacher him/herself). I do not know the answer to everything, but I believe I am good at facilitating the tools needed for learning. For instance, when I am asked a question, whether I know the answer or not, I redirect it to the class so they can start a debate if the question is of communal scientific interest. Nevertheless, I have also researched answers to students’ specific questions from my students - as well as encourage them to look it up - for which I did not know the answer, sharing and shared the results of my search with them at the beginning of the next class session.

As a laboratory teaching assistant, I take the needed measurements in order to engage all of my students. It is my personal goal to do such a great job that my students will look forward to coming back to the laboratory next week. Because the students are expected to read the lab manual before coming to the lab and because they are tested on this knowledge with quizzes, I do not simply repeat what is in the manual. I make a better use of the introduction time by discussing current applications of the technique that they will be performing that day, using audiovisual resources and running discussions. For instance, in one of the labs they get to extract DNA from an insect and identify what species they collected using the so-called “molecular barcoding technique”. Here I lead a discussion on the benefits and potential shortcomings of one of the visions of Professor Dan Janzen, a member of our Department, who anticipates in the short-term the creation of a portable device that, based on this the barcoding technique, will be able reveal in real time the species identity and other useful information. For the shark dissection lab, I use a projector to play videos of Youtube and SciVee on how sharks detect preys, and mate – the students are always amazed by the violence in the latter act. My discussions are usually centered around real world applications and experimental designs: how could one make a more robust experiment than the one they will be performing that day, and what caveats and flaws could they find. I definitely use all my available resources at my reach, the most powerful one being my own imagination. For instance, in the cardiac function laboratory, the students dissect a sheep heart, which they always find difficult because things are not as clear as in the diagram of the lab manual. Prior to letting them open the heart, I have them dissect mine: I tape on my chest a sheet with an unlabeled heart printed on it, and then I wear a zip-jacket on top. After the introduction, I take a scalpel and simulate a “jacket thoracic” dissection by unzipping it, and then I have them to tell me how the cardiac blood circulation works in my heart – rather than me telling them. In the same lab they have to come up with their own hypothesis on how a given treatment will affect the heart rate and blood pressure. During my first semester TAing this lab they always tried to implement obvious, easy treatments such as running (of course that will increase heart rate and blood pressure!). Over the time, as a head TA, I have implemented candy rewards to the groups that come with the “coolest” - and methodologically sound- testable hypothesis in each lab session. Last semester one of the winning group’s treatments was to play Mario Bros on Gameboy at the highest level of difficulty; other groups tested effects of rock music on from one student’s iPod, or the difference between reading an advance physics book full of formulae versus reading Harry Potter.

During the labs I spend most of my time in direct interaction with my students, walking through the lab room and making sure they understand the rationale behind of what they are doing, how they are doing it, and most importantly: why they are doing it. I reinforce this by asking them thoughtful questions. For instance, in one of the labs they have to establish the threshold to taste of three different types of sugar; here I ask them why they have to release the drop at the very tip of the patient’s tongue – the reason being that it is there where the receptors for sweet are located, on top of the fact that if they released it in some area of their mouth containing saliva, the solution would get diluted and it could lead to a false “no taste” (and then I incidentally refresh their minds on type I and II errors...). In situations in which my students need extra help to answer my questions, I rephrase, redirect and keep asking them more specific questions that can make them realize of the broader picture, sometimes giving them hints. I have never ended up answering my own questions.

Serving as a teaching assistant to a field course is a different matter. On top of teaching content and scientific thought, one must stay alert for all the tiny details at all times. I use my enthusiasm and sense of humor to keep a nice mood in the group throughout the long days of arduous fieldwork, and I combat whining with understanding and motivation. The course gives the students the chance to fully experience the full scientific method from beginning to end. They are required to ask  an ecologically relevant question, and consequently to design the experiment to answer it, collect the data, analyze it, and write a group report. Because the primary instructors of the course during the three years I have been in charge of it are affiliated with UPenn, but not physically on campus, I have surpassed the expectations of my duties and extended beyond those of a regular classroom TA to make sure enough guidance was provided - I did this by being available also during the weekends and late at night so my students can come to the lab to process field-collected samples, by making appointments with the library and writing resource centers to assure they learn basic literature research skills and how to write a scientific paper.

During my first year, because I am not native in English, my major concern was to make myself as clear as possible. I started developing graphic and organizational skills specifically designed to make up for my accent. In the laboratory, I would write clear outlines and protocols as well as draw models of the organs to be dissected. Now that my English has improved to the point that it is no longer considered as a frontier to communication, I continue to use this graphic organization because, despite the long time it takes, student feedbacks have made me aware of its usefulness, such as helping students visualize processes and anatomical traits much better..

To me, continuous evaluation is the key to a successful teaching because it allows me to gear the content of the class in a more specific way, which will eventually cause the student to learn more and better. For that purpose, at the end of each session, I ask my students to write in a piece of paper, without their names on it, the aspect that they have learned that day that they liked the most and the concept/theory that was more difficult to understand. I also ask for overall feedback for the class. Doing so has allowed me to see where students struggle more, where I need to improve, and to follow up in the coming weeks.

I am highly committed to teaching just like I am to research, and because I have come to terms with the impact of my actions, I always try to do my best so as to ensuring my students receive the best education that I can possibly give them.

Sincerely,

                            Roberto Salguero-Gomez