Land-surface Atmosphere Research Group

Teaching Philosophy and Goals

My overall goals for student learning are to increase their understanding of the principle concepts and theories in atmospheric science and to develop the necessary skills for using the tools and technology central to our discipline. To accomplish this, I strive to go beyond merely teaching facts and principles – although these undoubtedly must be included – and attempt to help students develop higher-order thinking skills they will need as they encounter “beyond-thetextbook” problems in their careers. This is especially important for atmospheric scientists, in both operational and research settings, as textbook cases are rarely, if ever, encountered in the “real” world. I believe that by challenging students in a variety of ways – homework problems, lab exercises, and exams – they can become active participants in the learning process.

Of course, teaching does not stop after the assigned class time has ended. I have both scheduled office hours and an open-door policy for students to drop in with questions or concerns. I also make sure that students have my office phone number and e-mail address to make appointments or to ask questions.

Graduate courses
Graduate courses represent a completely different way of teaching and my primary goal when teaching a graduate class is to try to learn at least as much from my students as they learn from me. My graduate courses rarely find me lecturing or even leading the discussion – I leave that up to the students. I feel that my role is one of providing guidance as we explore together. At the graduate level, my focus is for the students to immerse themselves in the primary
literature of a specific topic to gain an understanding of both the history of the science and its current state. Depending on the number and background of the students, I also strive to develop a class project that can lead to a research publication.