Aaron Danner
Fellow
Teaching excellence occurs when a student becomes interested in what was previously perceived as a boring topic. Students can always interesting topics on their own, but it is those difficult or seemingly uninteresting topics that need the inspiration of a good teacher. My educational philosophy is to try to teach physical concepts in an engaging way, using mathematical detail sparingly and only as a tool to reach a certain goal, and to use in-class demonstrations as much as possible. Students are (hopefully) not bored because the sights and sounds I present to them in class cannot be found in a textbook. My field of specialization, electrical engineering, is replete with mathematics and equation-solving - this can cause students to lose interest and drown in a sea of equations. The challenge in education is to present them as tools in discovering the vast richness of possibility for advancement in both technology and society.