Department of Applied Environmental Science
Teaching
My work spans across several areas. I teach a first year, introductory physics class at CSUMB and have done so since 1996. I like to engage my students as much as possible and I use techniques and technologies to promote interactivity during class, such as clickers, peer instruction, and demonstrations. They also do their own physics demonstration that they show to a nearby school every semester.
In addition, I teach classes designed for the Environmental Studies Major and I have done so for the past 3 years. Those classes are Sustainability Systems, where students learn about systems following the work of Meadows, Senge, Sterman, Bar Yam, Capra, and others. They do systems modelling using Stella and they apply a systems thinking/systems modelling approach to address a regional challenge. The other class I teach is Infrastructure Systems, where students learn about the infrastructure that those of us in First-World countries depend upon, but which are often taken for granted. In addition to regular readings from Huler's On the Grid, there is a (nearly) weekly panel where local experts from each infrastructural area come and present what they do, current issues in their work, and directions that they see their regional work taking.
I am initiating a new class this fall that will engage students in group capstone work to assist a regional city in a sustainability issue that it would like to be able to address.