Why do I want to teach?  I am often faced with this query from friends and colleagues, especially because I work at a large research university.  Quite simply, I want to teach because it is what I love to do.  I am definitely out of place among the majority of my coworkers who want to go into industry, or lead their own large academic research laboratories.  My love of teaching stems from the desire to provide others with the same motivational academic environment that I was lucky enough to experience in my undergraduate education.  Without the dedicated professors at Furman University, I would likely have dropped out of school.  At a larger institution, I would have most certainly fallen through the cracks.  However, the individual interaction with my professors not only helped me adjust to college, but taught me to succeed.  By the end of my four years at Furman, my professors not only provided me with a well-rounded education, but became mentors and friends.  It was this experience that led me to pursue my Ph.D. and postdoctoral studies, with the intention of teaching at a primarily undergraduate institution (PUI).

 

Who and where do I want to teach?  My desire to connect with my students would theoretically be satisfied by teaching at a grade school level.  So why am I committed to teaching undergraduates?  Over the years, I have experienced teaching students at different levels--from teaching German to elementary school students, to guiding medical school students through immunology case studies.  By far, instructing undergraduates has been the most rewarding to me. Undergraduates are at a point in their education where they have choices over what they study.  It is a time of self-exploration and career choice like no other in their lives. The type of professor-student interaction that I want to achieve cannot be effectively accomplished in a large university lecture hall of 200 students.  At a PUI, I can participate in students’ progress through their years of education, instead of only interacting with them for a single semester.  I truly loved this type of learning environment as a student, and I can imagine no better place to establish my own teaching career. 

 

What do I want to teach?  Obviously, my greatest enthusiasm revolves around how the immune system fights infections.  This gives me a broad interest not only in immunology, but in the bacteria and viruses that cause illness, and the pathology that results.  To fully appreciate its complexity, I find it important to consider the aspects of an immune response on molecular, cellular, and physiological levels.  The study of immunology is not complete without considering how various receptors and ligands interact, how the cells expressing these receptors respond via gene regulation and other cellular responses, and what that means to the organism as a whole.  Because immunology reaches across disciplines, I have extraordinary flexibility in the ability to teach not only general biology (both majors and non-majors) and immunology, but microbiology, cell biology, molecular biology, and genetics.  Indeed, one of the aspects of a PUI which attracts me is that an individual professor must be responsible for many different types of courses. 

 

Aside from traditional classes, I am looking forward to introducing and guiding undergraduates through laboratory research.  This aspect of science is distinctly different from lecture courses, and is critical for students to experience in order to be prepared for a career using their science degree.  Hands-on research experience is becoming a valuable commodity, as medical schools and residency programs, biological sales companies, and many other careers value employees who have laboratory experience.  This can be accomplished in a couple of ways:

 

1. An Independent Study in a professor’s laboratory, or an off-campus location.  This allows the student to immerse themselves in an open-ended project over the course of a semester (or longer), and is, in my opinion, the best introduction to a scientific research environment.  I chose my postdoctoral studies based upon the usefulness of the C. elegans model system in an undergraduate research setting.  C. elegans research is relatively inexpensive, is easily learned by undergraduates, requires little specialized equipment and can easily be stored in a freezer if research needs to be postponed. 

 

2. Laboratory content developed within a lecture course. “Cookbook” laboratories do not train students to think critically, how to design experiments, or effectively analyze results. Investigative laboratories with unknown outcomes expose students to how science is conducted in the real world.  Allowing students to have ownership in key project decisions will help develop the critical thinking skills to design and interpret experiments.  C. elegans is again a useful model organism in these instances, as it is used in a wide variety of research. Therefore, I can develop projects to complement most of the courses that I will teach, as well as collaborate with colleagues to use C. elegans in their own laboratory exercises, if desired.

 

How will I teach?  Ultimately, it is necessary to teach students how to approach new material, critically think about it, understand it, and apply it to a broader conceptual base.  That way, no matter what the subject, they will have the tools necessary to succeed.  In introductory undergraduate courses, science is, by necessity, fact-based.  Beginning students must initially learn the rules (textbook material outlining accepted scientific dogma) before breaking the rules (not everything in a textbook is correct or fully understood!).  Because of the sheer volume of material to be covered, I find lecture-style teaching to be most effective in these circumstances.  However, there are many ways to incorporate other exercises which allow opportunities for class discussions:

 

1. Incorporating current events into class. Many current media topics can be used as a platform to discuss basic biological processes.  This connects the theory in the textbook with real life applications, and provides avenues of student interest.  This can be accomplished by including the topics in lecture, as well as writing assignments that require the student to research both the popular media articles and scientific articles behind the topic.

 

2. Introduction of primary literature articles.  Reading primary literature is a must for scientists, even at the most basic level.  Too often students get tunnel vision in respect to accepting the textbook as the final answer to everything.  By its very nature, science is a constantly changing medium, as researchers repeatedly challenge existing ideas.  However, this can be very daunting to students who, in the traditional educational system, are conditioned to simply memorize the facts in a book.  The use of historical and current journal articles will illustrate how scientific knowledge grows and changes with new discoveries and technologies. This will also promote scientific reading, writing and critical thinking skills which are necessary for future success in the sciences. 

 

3. Case studies.  Application of course content by the discussion of case studies will cement student knowledge of the processes being taught, and can tie together different concepts into a comprehensive whole. Medical case studies can provide material for the discussion of immune responses, the organisms that cause infection, the genetic basis of disease and/or the cellular responses leading to disease. 

 

I’ve covered all the basic questions. The only one left is when will I teach?  I feel that I have prepared myself as best I can to being my new career at a PUI.  I truly hope that I can find that position at your institution.