Teaching

I take pride in teaching and I love my students! Some of my most memorable moments of my career are when I see my students apply what they have learned and demonstrate true mastery over course topics. I take great pride in seeing my students move forward and successfully secure career positions or thrive in graduate school. I follow a modified version of the Team-Based Learning pedagogy, where I require out-of-class preparation for my lectures, and classroom time emphasizes peer discussion/mentoring, Socratic questioning, and real-world applications of course concepts.

I teach classes in weather observations and forecasting, synoptic meteorology, mesoscale meteorology, and radar meteorology. I have received several awards for teaching, mentoring and research including the Ohio University Jeanette Graselli Brown Faculty Teaching Award from the College of Arts and Sciences, the University Professor award, the College of Arts and Sciences Award for Outstanding Research in the Physical Sciences, and the Ohio University Honor’s Tutorial College Outstanding Mentor of the Year award.

I also routinely take students out into the field for a first-hand storm chasing and severe weather prediction experiential learning program. We observe severe convection as it forms, and students actively participate in the forecasting and decision making processes. This is often a once in a lifetime experience for students.


Student Testimonials:

“Over the course of this trip, I not only learned more than I ever could have imagined about storm chasing and forecasting for severe weather, but had an amazing time as well.”

“I feel that being out in the field helped me understand (severe weather topics) so much better than reading them out of a textbook or sitting in on a classroom lecture about them. The stakes are higher and there are consequences to getting the forecast wrong.”

“This trip was definitely a test of forecasting skills and a great hands-on experience for reinforcing what we learned about severe weather in class. I had to constantly be looking at models and updating my thoughts on a target region in real time”

“This trip has taught me a lot not only about supercells, and tornadoes, but also about the societal impacts of them as well, and that is something that you can’t learn in a classroom or read in a textbook.”

“I have decided that I want to keep storm chasing and learning. Weather is so fascinating and this trip has really solidified my desire to learn as much as I possibly can about it. I really want to make a difference somehow and maybe even discover something that will save people’s lives. This trip has made me excited for my future.”

 
Syllabi