The final element of teaching effectiveness that I wish to address in this portfolio is an evidence of commitment to students and mentoring. I have touched on this briefly elsewhere in this document, but I want to give a more comprehensive assessment of my work in this regard. At the end of this section I have included a few solicited letters of support from students I have had the pleasure of teaching in various courses.
Course Project Mentoring
I have mentored students in course projects in Differential Equations courses over the course of five semesters now. The student work being produced in this course is high quality and had led to student interest in undergraduate research. Examples of such work can be seen in the Engaging Content and Appendix: Teaching sections.
LaTeX Mentoring
I have used multiple courses as an opportunity to share with students my appreciation for using LaTeX to create high quality mathematical documents. As a result, I have had several students ask for my help with or advice on using LaTeX in other courses/projects whilst here at ACU. A few samples of student work I mentored involving LaTeX are provided below.
Student Poster created with Beamer Poster
Student Seminar Presentation with LaTeX Beamer
Student Undergraduate Research Conference Presentation created with LaTeX Beamer
Mentoring Meetings
In Discrete Mathematics I have allowed students to schedule “mentoring meetings” with me to discuss their work. Students commit to at least fifteen minutes with me during which we evaluate the student homework and proof writing skills on the basis of notation, coherency, accuracy, and organization of thoughts. It has been an especially rewarding experience for many students in the course. Per a student in the course,
He gave us the option of having a mentoring meeting for extra credit. That was lovely because we could get tips on how to improve our thought processes and get extra credit on homework!
Accessibility to Students
I’ve addressed this topic in my personal philosophy and teaching effectiveness sections, but there are a variety of ways in which I’ve made myself accessible to students.
- Conducted formal review sessions the nights leading up to exams on multiple occasions.
- Met with students at the library, math study room, and computer lab after hours, even as late as 11:00 PM in some cases.
- Provided students with a wide variety of online resources, including making myself available online for virtual office hours in some cases (outside of normal office hour times).
- Cooked a variety of snacks/foods for students in many of my classes.
- I have been invited to and attended numerous student graduations, marriages, and athletic contests.
- I have written student recommendation letters for graduate schools, summer internships, study abroad, and program entrance requirements.
- Worked closely with struggling students and their families (when requested by the student) to improve student performance. I even met with a student and his parents on the weekend to talk about steps the student could take to improve and offer my help tutoring the student personally.
Undergraduate Research
I have conducted undergraduate research in varying degrees with multiple students over the last 2-3 years. A listing of some of the most recent projects is provided below.
- Amanda Keany, “Math in Sudoku”, ACU Mathematics Seminar, November 2010.
- Daniel Pamplin, “The Three Body Problem“, ACU Mathematics Seminar, November 2011.
- Adam Simpson, “Investigations of the Number Derivative”, ACU Undergraduate Research Festival, April 2012.
- Adam Simpson, “Investigations of the Number Derivative“, Texas Section of the MAA, April 2012.
Additionally, I helped raise departmental awareness of the need to participate in the undergraduate research festival held on campus. I served as a judge at the festival last year. I have also urged the department to fund student research during the summer. As a result, this summer we drafted documents allowing students to be paid for summer research experiences within the department and am currently mentoring one such student.
Student Letters of Support
Included below are letters of support from a few students referencing their experiences across several classes with me as professor. The letters were solicited and students were told the letters were for the purposes of tenure and promotion at the time of the request. The students were given no directions as to the content of the letters.
Bowen, Crowder, Nikolaus Letter of Support
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