Teacher Resources

I first had the opportunity to serve as a Teaching Assistant in 1993. I continued to serve as a TA across four different lab courses for much of my graduate school days. My early teaching experience, minus some Research Assistant time and a hiatus to work for TRW Space and Electronics Group, lasted until 2002. By 2004, I again entered the teaching arena as I helped to redevelop a laboratory course on digital communications. By 2005, I was teaching this course as well as a relatively new course developed for students interested in Electrical and Computer Engineering…some looking for a possible major, but most looking for an Information Technology “swing” to their non-STEM (non Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) discipline. It was the challenges that came with this latter course that drove me in my quest to find and apply the best teaching methods for engaging students with undeveloped STEM backgrounds in the STEM disciplines. I now find myself reflecting back on over two decades of experience in teaching and having the opportunity of sharing some of my experience with others. Below, I share some of the resources that I have found very helpful for new instructors and TAs.

My slides from the Graduate Teaching Academy, Aug. 20, 2013

• How to use Active/Cooperative Learning strategies to improve your teaching.
http://www.foundationcoalition.org/home/keycomponents/collaborative_learning.html
http://www.calstatela.edu/dept/chem/chem2/Active/

• Pedagogies of Engagement…how to engage your students.
http://www.shsu.edu/academics/cce/documents/Pedagogies_of_engagement_Classroom-based_practices.pdf

• Resources in Engineering and Science Education focused on Learning Styles…Richard Felder’s advice over a long and distinguished career.
http://www4.ncsu.edu/unity/lockers/users/f/felder/public/RMF.html

• Lab writeups…what to include, how to grade.
http://www.writing.engr.psu.edu/workbooks/laboratory.html
http://www.biologycorner.com/worksheets/labreport_rubric.html

• What makes a lab “well-designed”?
https://engineering.purdue.edu/ChE/aboutus/publications/teaching_eng/chapter9.pdf

• The entire text titled Teaching Engineering with a lot of timeless advice!
https://engineering.purdue.edu/ChE/aboutus/publications/teaching_eng

• And I’ll finish with a short video discussing some of features of best practices in teaching and learning applied to my own course, ECE110 Intro to Electronics: