Teaching
As a teacher, I strive to motivate, stimulate, and inspire my students to be logical, critical, independent, and enthusiastic thinkers. These are life skills that are valuable to whatever profession they eventually endeavor to do.
​
As a geologist, I am always fascinated by how the color, shape, texture, and composition of rocks and minerals can tell us about their history. In teaching Geology, I seek a balance between teaching background information and challenging students to make discoveries. I found that experiential learning to be most productive. I love to take students out in the field to understand geological structures and rock types. In the lab, I believe that students should have hands-on experiences in identifying rocks and minerals. My goal of teaching Geology is to build a connection between textbook lessons and nature, letting students feel and appreciate the wonder and beauty of geology around them, understanding why there are high mountains and deep oceans, cold glaciers and hot lavas, and how the Earth become a habitable planet. I also believe that as a geologist we can help students to better understand the fragility of our environment and how to work together to protect our planet.
​
For my career, I will commit to both research and teaching/mentoring as I believe that having a strong research capability is an essential foundation for being a good teacher and mentor.
Teaching Assistant at Department of Earth & Space Sciences, Univ. of Washington
ESS 439 Igneous Petrology, Instructor: Fang-Zhen Teng (Winter 2017)
I taught students how to classify rock types from hand specimen, how to identify minerals based on optical properties, how to read rock histories from thin-sections.
ESS 312 Geochemistry, Instructors: Fang-Zhen Teng and John Stone (Springs 2014, 2016, 2017)
I taught students to calculating thermodynamic problems, perform routine geochemical data analyses, construct typical geochemical plots (e.g., REE pattern), and model partial melting/fractional crystallization processes.
ESS 212 Earth Materials and Processes, Instructor: Michael Brown (Winter 2015)
I taught about crystallography, mineralogy, and petrology, including how to identify minerals and rocks in hand specimen and thin-sections.
ESS 106 Living with volcanoes, Instructor: Michael Harrell (Winter 2016)
ESS 101 Introduction to Geological Sciences, Instructor: Terry Swanson (Autumn 2013 and Winter 2014)
I introduced basic geological concepts, including geotechniques, plate tectonics, minerals, igneous/sedimentary/metamorphic rocks, geologic time and geohazrds.
Volunteer teacher in Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, NW China
Inspired by the dream to become a mountain area voluntary teacher ever since my early childhood when I saw the poor children studying in shabby classrooms, reading under dim light and eat only two meals a day due to the lack of money on the television, I finally got an opportunity to work as one in a mountain village middle school in Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, Northwest China, in my sophomore summer. Over my undergraduate life, I have financially supported ten needy students to continue their high school studies by using my scholarship. After graduation from the university, I still keep in touch with the volunteer group and keep trying everything that I can to help them, be it raising money for their families or collecting used books, clothes and stationery from the public. It was a great happiness to know that nine of them have successfully been admitted into universities. To me, there are certain similarities between the research work and volunteer service, for they both called for great patience, enthusiasm and dedication.
.jpg)