Teaching
As an environmental engineer, I was honored to be instructed by many outstanding professors at Lanzhou University, China and Duke University, their passionate commitment to teaching and great patience to solving any challenges evoked my brief to become an educator who can disseminate knowledge and train next generations to be creative. In the following, I will briefly introduce my enthusiasm for teaching, summarize my teaching experiences, discuss my teaching plan, and reflect on my prospect to the future.
As an environmental engineer, I was honored to be instructed by many outstanding professors at Lanzhou University, China and Duke University, their passionate commitment to teaching and great patience to solving any challenges evoked my brief to become an educator who can disseminate knowledge and train next generations to be creative. In the following, I will briefly introduce my enthusiasm for teaching, summarize my teaching experiences, discuss my teaching plan, and reflect on my prospect to the future.
Enthusiasm for Teaching
Enthusiasm for Teaching
I certainly believe teaching provides me an excellent opportunity to hear novel perspectives from students and consolidate my knowledge framework. Besides, considering many research areas in the field of hydrology are interdisciplinary and require a strong background in mathematics, physics, and programming, teaching activities that help students build solid knowledge foundations and encourage them to fetch groundbreaking achievements in research frontiers are critical.
I certainly believe teaching provides me an excellent opportunity to hear novel perspectives from students and consolidate my knowledge framework. Besides, considering many research areas in the field of hydrology are interdisciplinary and require a strong background in mathematics, physics, and programming, teaching activities that help students build solid knowledge foundations and encourage them to fetch groundbreaking achievements in research frontiers are critical.
Also, teaching activities refresh my mind by freeing me out of heavy research tasks so that I can be concentrated and efficient afterwards.
Also, teaching activities refresh my mind by freeing me out of heavy research tasks so that I can be concentrated and efficient afterwards.
Teaching Experience
Teaching Experience
I have been a teaching assistant for an upper-level undergraduate course CEE 301L: Fluid Mechanics in the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering at Duke University for two semesters, during which I was in charge of leading experiment classes, holding office hours, and grading students' homework and lab reports. In the office hours, I made great effort to prepare detailed handouts illustrating step-by-step solutions to abstract homework problems and derivation of fundamental equations in the textbook (e.g., deriving depth ration across a hydraulic jump in terms of the Froude Number), as well as responding to emails and address any concerns quickly. To activate students' flexible thinking capabilities, I designed complex-looking problems that are tough to solve if following conventional ways; to foster students' rigorous and organized writing style, I read their outputs word-by-word and applied critical criteria to address detailed issues (such as verifying every calculation result for 100+ equations consisting of at most 10 variables each), although sometimes they are tiny and trivial. At the end of semesters, I was glad to find that students paid more attention to details (e.g., words they used, calculation results) and thought deeply and critically about lectured materials; in addition, one undergraduate told me that "this class has been a lot more manageable thanks to you," and one of the course instructors commented me as an "extraordinary TA" and said, "you are the best TA in my 20-year teaching career."
I have been a teaching assistant for an upper-level undergraduate course CEE 301L: Fluid Mechanics in the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering at Duke University for two semesters, during which I was in charge of leading experiment classes, holding office hours, and grading students' homework and lab reports. In the office hours, I made great effort to prepare detailed handouts illustrating step-by-step solutions to abstract homework problems and derivation of fundamental equations in the textbook (e.g., deriving depth ration across a hydraulic jump in terms of the Froude Number), as well as responding to emails and address any concerns quickly. To activate students' flexible thinking capabilities, I designed complex-looking problems that are tough to solve if following conventional ways; to foster students' rigorous and organized writing style, I read their outputs word-by-word and applied critical criteria to address detailed issues (such as verifying every calculation result for 100+ equations consisting of at most 10 variables each), although sometimes they are tiny and trivial. At the end of semesters, I was glad to find that students paid more attention to details (e.g., words they used, calculation results) and thought deeply and critically about lectured materials; in addition, one undergraduate told me that "this class has been a lot more manageable thanks to you," and one of the course instructors commented me as an "extraordinary TA" and said, "you are the best TA in my 20-year teaching career."
Additionally, in 2019 Fall Semester, I joined the Teaching Triangles (TT), a peer observation program at Duke University, to obtain feedback about my teaching style in Fluid Mechanics class from other Ph.D. students in different disciplines. The most useful thing about being observed and getting feedback is finding out the "blind spot" in your thinking of how to lecture your class very well. For example, I paid lots of my attention on the logical chain of the whole teaching process that is indeed critical, whereas one of my partner pointed out my frequent instruction "runs the risk of affecting overall self-esteem," which impressed and enlightened me a lot; also, my two partners both suggest that I can have more pauses during the lecture, so that I would deliberately slow down my pace and dissect different teaching components, but make sure they are connected orderly, in my future activities. Moreover, the TT program made me think deeply about how to lecture a "comprehensive" class within limited time so that students would gain knowledge or learning experience as much as they can. The word "comprehensive" means we take as many factors into account as we could, no matter whether it is related to the teaching content or not. In my untypical experiment classes which are fulfilled of random uncertainties, some unexpected conditions have occurred (e.g., the failure of instrument, strange/weird but interesting questions proposed by students, as well as their lack of common sense, etc.), all of them tested my ability to handle "teaching emergency" quickly and effectively. As the old saying goes, "If students need a bottle of knowledge in class, teachers should prepare a bucket one." which reflects the importance of teaching comprehensiveness.
Additionally, in 2019 Fall Semester, I joined the Teaching Triangles (TT), a peer observation program at Duke University, to obtain feedback about my teaching style in Fluid Mechanics class from other Ph.D. students in different disciplines. The most useful thing about being observed and getting feedback is finding out the "blind spot" in your thinking of how to lecture your class very well. For example, I paid lots of my attention on the logical chain of the whole teaching process that is indeed critical, whereas one of my partner pointed out my frequent instruction "runs the risk of affecting overall self-esteem," which impressed and enlightened me a lot; also, my two partners both suggest that I can have more pauses during the lecture, so that I would deliberately slow down my pace and dissect different teaching components, but make sure they are connected orderly, in my future activities. Moreover, the TT program made me think deeply about how to lecture a "comprehensive" class within limited time so that students would gain knowledge or learning experience as much as they can. The word "comprehensive" means we take as many factors into account as we could, no matter whether it is related to the teaching content or not. In my untypical experiment classes which are fulfilled of random uncertainties, some unexpected conditions have occurred (e.g., the failure of instrument, strange/weird but interesting questions proposed by students, as well as their lack of common sense, etc.), all of them tested my ability to handle "teaching emergency" quickly and effectively. As the old saying goes, "If students need a bottle of knowledge in class, teachers should prepare a bucket one." which reflects the importance of teaching comprehensiveness.
Teaching Plan
Teaching Plan
Accounting for my teaching and learning experience, I am capable of teaching undergraduate- and graduate-level courses about fluid mechanics, remote sensing, hydrometeorology, and machine learning. The ultimate goal is helping students understand the big picture of the field, identify current hot topics, develop critical thinking skills, and apply what they have learned from my class to solve practical problems by incorporating the latest techniques. To this end, I will (1) explore innovative teaching technologies matched with students' aptitude, (2) connect theory to reality in teaching, (3) design project-oriented courses for advanced topics, and (4) help students grow to conduct independent research.
Accounting for my teaching and learning experience, I am capable of teaching undergraduate- and graduate-level courses about fluid mechanics, remote sensing, hydrometeorology, and machine learning. The ultimate goal is helping students understand the big picture of the field, identify current hot topics, develop critical thinking skills, and apply what they have learned from my class to solve practical problems by incorporating the latest techniques. To this end, I will (1) explore innovative teaching technologies matched with students' aptitude, (2) connect theory to reality in teaching, (3) design project-oriented courses for advanced topics, and (4) help students grow to conduct independent research.
Looking Ahead
Looking Ahead
I would be excited about becoming a primary instructor to disseminate knowledge to the next generations and attract them to devote themselves to researching snow hydrology. For this purpose, in the process of enriching teaching experiences, I will strive to polish teaching techniques by integrating my research into teaching activities and seeking more collaborative opportunities as much as I can.
I would be excited about becoming a primary instructor to disseminate knowledge to the next generations and attract them to devote themselves to researching snow hydrology. For this purpose, in the process of enriching teaching experiences, I will strive to polish teaching techniques by integrating my research into teaching activities and seeking more collaborative opportunities as much as I can.