What and how do I teach?

I teach in the Department of Civil Engineering which focuses on sustainability and interdisciplinary, project-based learning - that's a mouthful but it is actually true! At the undergraduate level, I teach sustainable water resources (cive 340; fall). At the senior undergraduate and graduate level, I teach groundwater hydrology (cive 445-545; winter).

I am passionate with integrating sustainability science, anti-racism, equity, diversity and inclusion into my classes and helping other instructors across the department to do the same, as we discuss in this cheeky video....

Experimenting with innovative teaching approaches & sharing the results
I experiment with all kinds of ideas including gallery walks or a town hall meeting in large classes, an inter-university graduate class and playing games. I share these ideas through the blog posts on teaching.

Promoting active learning in the classroom
​​I promote active learning in a number of ways including using student response systems (usually clickers) to conduct conceptests (see website description), jigsaws (see website description), weekly ‘water in the news’ updates and in-class discussions.  

Get out of the classroom to experience the natural and built environment
​​We get out of the classroom for field trips, assignments and scavenger hunts for hydrologic features in the natural and built environment, so students experience the creek in the backyard and know what green infrastructure looks like.

Encouraging problem-solving and the development of professional skills
I encourage problem-solving  and development of professional skills like technical writing, peer-review, referencing, and presenting real world water sustainability problems and research group projects.