Teaching and Educational Activities

At Rensselaer, my educational efforts reflect my commitment to fostering the development of students into independent physical scientists through classroom teaching, research and effective mentoring. To this end, I have developed and provided curricula, research opportunities and effective mentoring to undergraduate, graduate and pre-college students that prepares, inspires and encourages students to pursue science, engineering and technology careers. My integrated approach to fostering the development of graduate and undergraduate students into independent scientists has enabled me to attract, prepare, inspire and encourage domestic students, particularly underrepresented minority students (URMs, for the purpose of this document defined as persons of African-American, Hispanic American, and Native American ethnic descent) to pursue graduate studies in science, engineering and technology fields.  

In my research group, many of the proof-of-concept results are the outgrowth of exploratory work by graduate-undergraduate student collaborations. Undergraduate students usually have opportunities to be involved in projects that involve preparation and characterization of polymer films by calorimetry and microscopy, the measurement of polymer film properties (e.g., mechanical testing, etc) and well as modeling of fundamental polymer properties with commercial software. All undergraduate assistants are required to write short research proposals and journal-style reports on their work. An important goal in mentoring these students is improving their overall scientific awareness, critical thinking, and communication skills.

The participation of my undergraduate and graduate students as teachers in mentors in “Why Plastics?”,  a new pre-college chemical sciences course I developed to prepare and inspire our youth, particularly underrepresented minorities (ethnic minorities and economically disadvantaged) to pursue careers in the physical sciences, engineering and technology serves to reinforce and build these scientific, critical thinking and communication skills in students. Several of the undergraduate students who have participated as teachers and mentors in “Why Plastics?” seek opportunities to explore research and graduate school as a way to broaden their skills and prepare for their careers in science, engineering and technology.  We attribute this to the increased confidence the students develop after participating in the course.

In 2007, I received the Martin Luther King Faculty/Staff Award in recognition of impact my teaching and mentoring activities to advancing the minority community ie. Faculty, Staff and Students at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Rensselaer Course Descriptions and Evaluations:

• Description of courses (undergraduate, graduate, pre-college) I have taught at RPI

• IDEA Evaluations of courses taught with motivational student feedback

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