Teaching Philosophy

Effective teaching must go beyond delivering content, it must foster curiosity, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills. My goal is to create an inclusive and engaging learning environment for undergraduates, where pupils can answer "Why am I studying this?" and connect fundamental science to real-world applications. Through active learning, interdisciplinary approaches, and mentorship, I strive to empower students to think independently, collaborate effectively, and develop a lifelong passion for discovery.

Please read my full teaching philosophy below.

I bring eight years of university teaching experience across 12 semesters, including three semesters as instructor of record and nine as a GTA, spanning general chemistry and health-sciences labs, senior design mentoring, and graduate instruction in polymer science. Most recently, I taught a core Macromolecular Science and Engineering course, developing the syllabus and lab modules, coordinating guest lectures, and designing authentic assessments (writing guides, NSF-style proposal pitches, and conference-style posters). Across roles, I emphasize clear, supportive instruction, rigorous lab safety, and technology-driven and evidence-based inclusive teaching.

 Chemistry is a gateway to medicine, engineering, environmental science, and countless industries—but it’s also impossible to separate from everyday life: the air we breathe, the water we drink, the food we eat, the products we buy. At the same time, we’re surrounded by chemical misinformation—“chemical-free” products, miracle detoxes, fearmongering about “toxins”—that preys on gaps in basic chemistry literacy. Chemistry of Life, The Universe and Everything (CLUE) is the course I want to teach to push back against that. It uses a small set of big ideas (interactions, structure, energy, and change) to answer real questions about cleaners, drugs, food, climate, and water, and asks students to test claims with data instead of hype. My goals are to help students become chemistry-literate citizens, to give them the language to challenge misinformation, and to design learning that is genuinely inclusive of different backgrounds and needs. The course is explicitly inspired by the CLUE curriculum developed by Melanie Cooper and Michael Klymkowsky, and adapts that vision into a life-focused, justice-aware version of general chemistry.