My teaching – A Passion for Physics

For me mentoring, supervising and teaching the next generation of leaders is a wonderful privilege. I enjoy the teaching-learning process immensely. I see myself as a facilitator, encouraging these young people to think conceptually, to see the big picture and not to get lost in the details. My goal is to help them develop a general problem-solving strategy, so as to avoid trying to memorize masses of details.

I recognize that students learn differently, and that my teaching must be sensitive to the individual needs of each student.  My teaching style is highly interactive (read, infectious and enthusiastic) and uses a mixture of teaching approaches, including exposition, discussion, computer exercises, case studies, and projects. By continuously challenging students I encourage active rather than passive learning. I present material visually, and make extensive use of computer facilities to manage and organize each course and to structure each class session. I have particularly enjoyed the opportunities to team-teach with colleagues from different program areas.

By encouraging the development of critical thinking abilities, students can quickly solve real-life problems independently and innovatively. They need this level of flexibility and understanding to flourish in an ever-changing world, where they will be life-long learners. I maintain my own intellectual curiosity by watching my students progress and by engaging in research and publication over a wide spectrum of interests. This love of the entire process of teaching and learning has served me well throughout the various changes in my own career path.

Using on-line delivery (Canvas) has freed my students from tedious note taking and allowed me to integrate different class activities more productively, ensuring that the students are actively engaged even though they may proceed at different speeds with some activities. It enables me to move between one-on-one questions, small group discussions and addressing the whole class without disturbing the flow of the session.

I have supervised small groups in Directed Study and individual students in Independent Research, including projects on lacunarity, general relativity and fractals which have been presented as research posters at CSUPERB, CSU SRC, Mathematical Association of America conferences and SPIE Medical Imaging conferences. I co-supervised a group of physics and art students who made an animated video, Einstein’s Unfinished Symphony, on string theory for a competition sponsored by Discover magazine). The video was placed fifth nationally and features a soundtrack by local musician, April Dawn. My students presented demonstrations and posters at the the Business and Technology Partnership Holiday Mixers, and two of them were awarded grants. I have supervised a number of M.Sc./Ph.D. theses on subjects such as texture, tortuosity, fingerprint and gender recognition, automatic vehicle navigation, real time digital signal processing, thin-film optical sensors, oxygenation monitoring and blood circulation using Doppler flowmetry.

I coordinate medical imaging internships at local hospitals, and take student groups to visit local hospitals and companies. During the Fall semester 2020, I taught my digital imaging course online supplementing my material in Canvas with short instructional videos produced with Camtasia and holding twice-weekly discussion sessions using Zoom.

For more details of the Applied Physics programs at Channel Islands see the Applied Physics homepage.

Words of wisdom

I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.

(Mark Twain)

To teach is to learn twice.

(Joseph Joubert)