Teaching Philosophy

I think learning should be fun. Critical thinking must be fostered, and concepts and skills should be acquired. But the most important function of a class is to engender enthusiasm for a field (or to discover that you really don't like it -- that's equally useful!). I teach my classes this way.

More formally, my teaching philosophy and curriculum emphasize interdisciplinary science, drawing on my experience as a physicist who has fully embraced biology. I am implementing discovery based teaching, targeting the development of critical thinking skills using tactics from the framework of Perry and Nelson (see, e.g., Perry, W. 1970 or Nelson, C. 1989). I believe that integrating these principles has helped to make the three courses that I have developed from scratch at Temple University a success, and has created opportunities for undergraduates to engage and be inspired by the world of real scientific discovery.

Classes

Typically I teach BIOE 4431/5431: Capstone Neuroengineering in the Fall, and BIOE 4441/5441 Capstone Biomechanics (syllabus) in the Spring.

I am the Course Director for the Bionic Human GenEd Course; more information is here.

In Fall 2023 I will be teaching BIOE 4431/5431: Capstone Neuroengineering.

In the past I have also taught:
  • BIOE 4101: BIOE Lab #3: Biomechanics Laboratory: (Fall 2016, Fall 2015)
  • BIOE 0944: Honors Bionic Human (GenEd) (Fall 2017, Spring 2017)
  • BIOE 2001: Principles of Bioengineering (Fall 2014)
  • ENGR 1901: Honors Introduction to Engineering (Spring 2016)

    • For completeness, I have taught the aforementioned capstones:
  • BIOE 4441/5441: Capstone Biomechanics (syllabus) (Spring 2015, Spring 2016, Spring 2017)
  • BIOE 4431/5431: Capstone Neuroengineering: (Fall 2015, Fall 2016, Fall 2017)

    • For more information on student feedback on my teaching performance, please see my full CV/Resume.