Teaching

Science and engineering will be essential in addressing humanity’s everchanging needs with respect to environmental, economic, energy, and public health issues. These problems require creative and diverse perspectives to solve, and an interdisciplinary education is indispensable for upcoming STEM professionals. Education is my passion, and I believe the constructive sharing of ideas is necessary to continue directing future generations in a positive direction.

One of the most important qualities of a STEM educator is the ability to reflect on one’s teaching and critically inquire, “Is this the best way to help my students learn?” Just as global challenges are everchanging and science is dynamic, so is education. My greatest experience with this idea comes from years of tutoring students from varied educational backgrounds. Each student understands concepts differently, and as an educator, I try to tailor my teaching style to the individual. I also found this to be the case for mentoring students; each individual has a unique perspective that may be leveraged to engender a positive learning experience for everyone involved. Consequently, I have developed a habit of viewing concepts through several different lenses to gain a more full representation of the idea at hand. Oftentimes, this means trying to activate resources from computational or other scientific knowledge domains. Therefore, I believe that a good educator should be versatile, inclusive, and reflective of one’s own teaching.