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Teaching geological sciences

发布时间:2017-04-22
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STATEMENT OF TEACHING INTERESTS

The man who can make hard things easy is the educator- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Geological Sciences

I want to teach to involve, challenge and inspire people to know more about earth science and its history of formation and deformation, evolution, composition and dynamicity in its nature. Geology’s complex system of evolving from the scientific empirical bases of physics, chemistry, mathematics and biology, creates an interesting conjugation of knowledge and participation among disciplines. It thus requires interest and skill to understand, analyze and propagate to others its brilliancy, as a broad multi-disciplinary field of knowledge and learning. I have been fortunate enough to be a teaching fellow in a number of graduate and under-graduate courses that helped me develop my skill, while pursuing my doctoral studies at Binghamton University. In each of the four courses that I taught between Fall 2010 to Spring 2013, the professors with whom I worked to conduct the classes have offered me with great autonomy. I have worked with great ease and comfort to lead a few guest lectures, conduct lab works, in addition to assisting the instructor during class hours, assignment and quiz grading, holding office-hours and review sessions and proctoring for the exams. Every course that I taught during these three years have helped me evolve as a better instructor with every passing semester and have given me the opportunity to learn and grow more while I teach.

Teaching Experience at SUNY Binghamton

When I started my Ph.D. at Binghamton University, I did not anticipate being a full-time Professor, rather I saw myself as a budding researcher with many questions in mind – about geology, geophysics and explorations beyond it. Then, it was my professors who helped me sort it out and guide me towards what I am today. I appreciate their help and now would like to reciprocate knowledge to many others who are like me. Engaging students in the class and among themselves helps in building a relationship between them and the subject. I prefer to engage and teach through demonstrations by mini-experiments and lab work analysis and by participating in small groups to help and encourage student in discussions. I believe such engagement in classes through group discussions, mentoring one another, group projects and presentations and collaboration among peers is the most important thing to make progress in science. The application of their study can only occur when it is taken outside the classroom and applied at a multi-disciplinary level and that stays as my goal as a teacher.

I started my teaching experience at the Geological Science department of Binghamton University by co-assisting Dr. David N. Jenkins’ class on GEOL 102 - Geology of the Solar System, with another graduate student in fall 2010. GEOL 102 is one of the mandatory- introductory courses for undergraduates in geology and a science elective (with laboratory works) for undergraduates from other departments. Hence, the course had one of the big classes of about 100 students in each session. I assisted Professor Jenkins during his classes and delivered a lecture on volcanism and plate tectonics. I also co-assisted for this class in fall 2011 and fall 2012, where my teaching evaluations improved from having problems in accent to a fair, patient instructor.

GEOL 449/549 - Introduction to Global Geophysics, under Dr. Steven Dickman was my second class as a teaching assistant and my first class as a lab instructor in spring 2011. My duties were to grade assignment; assist in lab and fieldwork for around 30 undergraduate/graduate students. It involved working with various instrumental recordings, both within the lab and in the field. Lab work included the setup and data recording assistance of the Foucault pendulum for Earth’s rotation calculation. In each lab class, I gave a brief introduction followed by a detailed explanation of the methods/processes that the students are going to follow to complete the lab work. Then I would go to each group of students to answer their specific questions. This made the students get involved in the process of participation and it also helped them to open themselves up for questions and problems related to the lab exercise. I encouraged students to ask questions and there were many a time when I did not have answers to all their questions. Then, I went back and looked at my books, research and other resources, to come up with their solution and to explain how I reached to the conclusion. For fieldwork, I provided assistance to setup and read gravimeter measurements to measure gravity anomaly reading in Bunn-Hill road. We have also used geophones and seismograph to obtain seismic data within campus and at Stair Park, Binghamton as part of the field project in this class.

I was also a TA for GEOL 115 - Global Change: Geological Perspective in spring 2012 with Dr. Steven Dickman and in spring 2013 with Dr. Erin G. Heard. My duties were mostly to grade assignments and quizzes; also held office hours and review sessions to attend to student’s doubts.

GEOL 142 - Water and Watersheds in spring 2012 and spring 2013 with Dr. Karen Salvage, mostly involved grading assignments and quizzes, proctor exams and to help students with problems and review sessions before exams. In each of these classes there were about 100 undergraduate students.

Teaching Interests

I have been a TA for “Introduction to Global Geophysics” and “Global Change: Geological Perspective” and have seen through the courses more than a couple of times, so I feel enthusiastic and confident to teach it as an instructor. These courses are very well structured and appropriate for undergraduate students and it does attracts students from other departments for their science elective. In addition, I have completed the course on Geophysics II, which is an advance geophysics course, that relates significantly to my master’s and doctoral research based on – gravity, ocean-atmosphere interaction and Earth’s rotation.

Based on my own academic background and my careful study of the currents course settings of Department of Geological Sciences, Binghamton University, I would like to design two new courses – related to climate studies and integrating geological research with statistical analysis and modeling. I have observed the absence of data analysis and numerical modeling among courses that are being offered in this department. This intrigued the idea in me to design a course on statistical studies in geology, to introduce the concept of data analysis and numerical modeling to the students. It will deal with massive data analysis using statistical & numerical techniques. These two courses can make a significant difference in the course curriculum offered at the university, as it would involve the analysis of research works done at higher level undergraduate or graduate studies. To discuss in detail, the two proposed courses can be framed as:

  • Changing Climate – would cover the basics of climate systems, its difference from weather, concept of energy balance, greenhouse effect of Earth and different indicators as well as factors of global warming. This will be an important course, which will attract students as everybody is hearing about global warming and climate change and this course will provide some answers and clear out their misconceptions.
  • MATLAB & R in Geology – R is open-sourced statistical software used to analyze huge datasets. This course would cover basic programming in MATLAB and R, introduce the concept of numerical modeling and data analysis. The purpose of this course is to attract student into climate modeling and metereological data analysis. This course will attract students from other departments too, as R is a statistical software with wide industrial applications for data analysis. So, with my programming skills in C, C++ and FORTRAN as well as in software like MATLAB, R, ArcGIS, I will be able to lead the students towards climate modeling and data analysis.

Teaching Philosophy

Whatever I have learnt in the last few years from teaching in classes is no longer just limited to any particular curriculum or material, rather it has infused in me the belief that effective teaching is to build a relationship with students through the persuasion of knowledge. I believe that an educator’s aim should be to ensure that every student understand the basic concept of the topic, can relate to it and is able to deal with the problems associated with it. Understanding the concept of the topic will reduce the student’s anxiety associated with mathematics and science and cultivate interest in the subject. Great educators are not just the ones who teach and help students earn good grades, but they are those to generate curiosity, inspire creativity and develop critical thinking ability.

My pursuit of higher education and the aim of being a scientist can be attributed to several teachers who have inspired and taught me necessary skills over all these years, to achieve these goals. Now I would like to contribute and be a channel for others to fulfill their dreams. I love to teach and learn from my students at all spheres of my life and I am always looking for new and innovative ways of challenges to motivate my students to think outside of the box.

Overall I believe that I am a patient, fair and demanding instructor and that my great passion for teaching, various past teaching experience, strong academic background and communication skills will make me an excellent teacher. If I can motivate my student to become insightful and to think enthusiastically towards any challenge, then I will believe that I have given them a strong foundation in the subject.

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