Teaching

Teaching Philosophy

Environmental chemistry allows us to apply basic chemistry fundamentals to understand critical environmental phenomena and problems at the intersection of environmental science, chemistry, and environmental engineering. My goals as an instructor of environmental chemistry, whether at the graduate or undergraduate level, is for students to (1) look beyond the fundamentals of chemistry to understand “real-world” applications, (2) develop an appreciation for novel research and novel solutions to current problems in environmental science that use fundamental chemistry, and (3) utilize a mixture of active learning techniques to engage diverse learners in the classroom.

Through my teaching experiences, I have cultivated a passion for teaching students to look beyond the compound/instrument in front of them and apply the discussion to current environmental issues of interest. I believe this is how one should teach environmental chemistry to develop an appreciation for the fundamentals while applying them to relevant problems. In addition, understanding the applicability of fundamental chemistry helps create a passion and interest in learning more about the field.

I understand that students have diverse learning methods. Some students learn best through problem solving and discussion, while others can solely rely on a lecture to get the information they need. To achieve my goals for students in classes, I rely on a mixture of lecture-based and active learning teaching techniques. I have found that breaking lectures up with more active learning activities engages students for a more extended period and caters to the diverse learners in a classroom. Additionally, students then develop deeper connections between fundamental chemistry and real-world applications/current novel research in the field.

Teaching Experience

For two semesters, I served as a Graduate Teaching Assistant (TA) for the Duke University Civil and Environmental Engineering Department. I served as a TA for CEE 563/ENV 540, Chemical Fate of Organic Compounds, and CEE 565/ENV 566, Environmental Analytical Chemistry, which are both upper-level graduate courses. In addition to just holding office hours and grading assignments for the Instructor on Record (IOR), I lectured throughout the semester to keep the course on track when the IOR was unable to lecture. Additionally, for Environmental Analytical Chemistry, I had to lead periodic laboratory editions of the class. Through these lab exercises, students performed a typical sample preparation and extraction technique for PAH analysis and a laboratory session used to demonstrate the use of high-resolution mass spectrometers in novel environmental analysis.

Through my teaching assistantships, I have introduced active learning activities into my lectures to apply better the fundamental principles I teach to “bigger” problems in environmental engineering/science. I use these types of activities so that students who learn better from discussion and hands-on activities have an equitable chance of learning compared to students who learn well enough from just the lecture slides and reading. Two of my favorite active learning activities to implement are Think, Pair, Share activities and discussions during class.

With Think, Pair, Share activities, I tend to pose a question to the class, more of a “bigger picture” or relate this concept to this environmental issue. Students have 1 minute to write an answer to the question. Then the students pair up with the someone next to them and discuss their answers and synthesize a response together. Lastly, groups share their responses, and then eventually, the correct answer is agreed upon by the whole class. These activities allow students to think about a topic for themselves while learning it and compare their thoughts to others to see if there are any noticeable gaps. Using the basic concept learned in class and relating it to a “bigger idea” allows students to know the importance of the material we are learning in the grand scheme of the field.

I also stop the lecture and allow for discussion about specific topics. I typically pose a question relating to a scientific problem and have everyone write for 1 minute. For example, when teaching a class about chemical instrumentation, students write for a minute about why we report QA/QC data when conducting an environmental analysis. Then some students share their responses, and I write these on the board. We then continue the discussion about why each of their ideas is right to an extent. This type of discussion allows students to see how a question can be answered from many different viewpoints, which breaks down the stigma of science only having one specific answer. Students are then more comfortable answering and participating in class while also allowing the material to be taught to everyone. Finally, the discussion ends with presenting a recent peer-reviewed article that utilizes the instrument being discussed to analyze a specific environmental chemistry issue; this allows for students to then see how the discussion we just had relates to the novel research currently being produced in the field.

Teaching Development

To further my professional development as an instructor, I’ve been a participant in Duke University’s Certificate in College Teaching (CCT) Program during my graduate school education. I take courses on pedagogical training in this program, such as GS 750: Fundamentals of College Teaching, where I learn best practices for college teaching, and GS 760: College Teaching and Visual Communication, where best practices for visual communication concerning education are covered.

Outside of these classes, I also participated in the Teaching Triangles Program for CCT. In this program, I observed other graduate students in different departments teach courses of their own. Teaching Triangles allowed me to see what types of teaching styles work and what don’t across disciplines. This program also allowed others to observe my teaching, allowing me to focus on specific aspects of my lectures to change and reaffirm that parts of my lectures work (i.e., the discussion and Think, Pair, Share activities). This experience has made me want to continue pairing up with colleagues to observe courses throughout my career since I can continuously improve my job through these exercises.

Additionally, in Spring 2020, I served as an Instructor on Record (IOR) for an undergraduate course entitled ENV 360, Environmental Chemistry and Toxicology, as part of a Duke University Bass Instructional Fellowship that I was awarded. With this award, I had the experience of teaching my very own class to an undergraduate student population, lacking in my pedagogical training. In addition, I revamped the environmental chemistry curriculum of this course since the current curriculum lacked basic underlying fundamentals important to the field. Students used many of my aforementioned active learning techniques throughout the course to apply fundamental chemistry to current environmental chemistry problems and expose themselves to recent novel research through access to carefully selected peer-reviewed journals.

I also believe in the power of student evaluations being used to develop my teaching further. I plan to emphasize to my students that their answers will further improve my classes and my instruction. Students are the ones who are learning, and it is best to get their opinions about what works for them and what does not. I feel this practice will be crucial in my future development as an instructor.