Teaching Interests

I have taught the following courses: Introduction to Biology (Population, Ecology and Organisms); Landscape Ecology and GIS; Introduction to Biogeography; Earth Systems Science; Biological Information Systems; Ornithology. Most of my courses have labs associated with the class that provides students with training in the use of technology to conduct analyses.

TEACHING STATEMENT

In 1999, the National Academy of Sciences’ (NAS) Committee on Education released a seminal report entitled “Transforming Undergraduate Education in Science, Mathematics, Engineering and Technology” that criticized undergraduate education in the United States as being too disciplinary and lacking any focus on principles that interconnect many sciences, mathematics and engineering fields. The authors of this report challenged educators to be more innovative in their instruction by providing students with more active learning environments, by engaging students in how material is connected to society and the human condition, and by providing quality experiences that facilitate group interaction and enhance communication skills. Indeed, many of the same issues are identified in Purdue’s Strategic Plan under Learning. To achieve preeminence, Purdue’s faculty need to develop new active learning programs, such as increased field experience, group learning exercises and studying abroad.

I have attempted to address the shortcomings outlined by the NAS by incorporating the following into my courses:

1. working in teams: both graduate courses taught by Dr. Pijanowski required students to work in teams to either solve problems in the computer laboratory or to work on presenting a review of a journal article to the rest of the class. Students met outside of class to coordinate their work which facilitated the development of teamwork and leadership skills.

2. improving communication skills: Dr. Pijanowski has graduate students in his class work on various aspects of communication, with an emphasis on discussion, oral presentation and writing assignments.

3. understanding the role of social science and technology in environmental science problem solving: Dr. Pijanowski has emphasized the need of biophysical scientists to understand the importance of social science research and approaches to natural resource problem solving and the role of current and emerging technologies in supporting research and natural resource management. All courses examine some aspect of the human dimension perspective in understanding natural resource problems.

4. developing innovative teaching approaches: I have tried to use research approaches such as role-pakying simlation in classes, in particular, large lecture classes. Here is a photo of my class interview of Charles Darwin for my Introductory Biology course:

Courses

I teach Landscape Ecology: Theory, Practice and Spatial Methods, a graduate level course, every other Spring term (even years).

In odd years, I teach Biogeography and GIS. I am collecting some of the students most recent lab assignments and some of the work that we have done is presented here: