By: Cassandra Hendry
Math and science courses can contain some of the most challenging material for students to grasp. But as Bob Burk knows, all it takes for students to be engaged is a video camera, their cellphone and a chance to sing the periodic table of elements in front of 700 people.
Burk, a chemistry professor and chair of the department at 杏吧原创, has a unique arsenal of tricks and technologies to translate the complex world of chemistry into something fun, an approach that has won him numerous teaching awards, including an in 2004, a in 2005 and a prestigious in 2006.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 know why it works. I just do it. People seem to be receptive to it, so that鈥檚 good,鈥� Burk laughs.
Clinging to PowerPoints for lectures is not his style, he says. Chemistry demos are done in front of the class for students to see how the textbook material comes to life.
Because his first-year course is filmed for CUOL, cameras can zoom in on the experiments and project it to the large screens at the front of the class. Even students watching at home for the online version can get in on the action by getting a perfect view of the experiment on their computers.
鈥淲e can鈥檛 give 700 students the apparatus to play around with, but we can show them in the classroom,鈥� he says.
Burk鈥檚 fascination with recording class material doesn鈥檛 stop there. Lab experiments are filmed for students prior to their own labs, so they can get a feel for what鈥檚 expected of them. As well, Burk says his class was the first filmed university course ever posted on iTunes.
That sense of helping students outside the classroom continues at night too, when Burk holds unofficial 鈥榦ffice hours鈥� via cellphone texts. He says his normal office hours can sometimes be 鈥渦seless鈥� because most of his students are studying in the evenings and not during the day.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 when they need you,” he says. “There鈥檚 always email of course, and I used to use Microsoft Messenger, which nobody uses anymore. Now I鈥檝e got a thing called Pinger that allows me to sit at my desk and text them on their cellphones.鈥�
He says the most important thing for professors to do is be available and spend time with their students, which Burk says is easy for him because he loves to do it.
鈥淭hey鈥檝e already got the textbook, syllabus, and lectures. There鈥檚 only one thing that students want from you, and that鈥檚 a piece of your time.鈥�
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