living matter lab
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==teaching philosophy==
 
==teaching philosophy==
  
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i am excited about teaching and lifelong learning. in all my courses, I strive to create a motivating, energetic, and engaging learning experience. at stanford, i have taught the core me undergraduate/graduate courses  
[[Image:Teaching1.jpg|240px|left]]
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e14 statics,
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me309 finite elements, and
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me338 continuum mechanics.
|in my second year as an undergraduate, i began teaching weekly tutorials in engineering mechanics and in computer science which were attended by groups of approximately 30 students. already at this very early stage i was so fascinated by the idea of sharing knowledge with others and thereby broadening my own horizons that i decided to pursue an academic career. i thus continued teaching, being convinced that young and enthusiastic students like me would best understand the fundamental problems of their fellow students. ever since then, my teaching style has been guided by the idea of simplifying rather than artificially complicating concepts and by embedding them into a broad general framework. as a graduate student, i voluntarily taught problem classes in linear and nonlinear finite element methods to about 40-50 graduates. finally, as a post doctoral researcher, i was given the opportunity to develop and teach my own courses in biomechanics and linear and nonlinear finite element methods.
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i have also introduced three new multidisciplinary undergraduate/graduate courses,
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me239 mechanics of the cell,
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me334 mechanics of the brain, and
<div class="spacer">&nbsp;</div>
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me337 mechanics of growth.  
since I was was appointed as assistant professor, i have been teaching various graduate courses in theoretical and computational mechanics, both in german and english. in regular teaching evaluations, my students characterize me as enthusiastic, well-organized, precise, dedicated, open and knowledgeable with a keen attitude towards helping them with all kinds of problems.
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prior to joining stanford,  
only recently, I was faced with an additional challenge when
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i taught
asked to teach an elementary course in engineering mechanics at the
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linear and nonlinear finite element methods and
undergraduate level to approximately 300 students.
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linear and nonlinear continuum mechanics at the universities of hannover, stuttgart, and kaiserslautern. at kaiserslautern, i taught the undergraduate courses
in the german system, these courses are
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statics, dynamics, and strength of materials with an enrollment of 314 and 289 students. at eth zurich, i taught the undergraduate course mechanics with an enrollment of 155 students.  
typically only taught by senior faculty.
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i think teaching undergraduates is especially
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challenging as they usually need much more encouragement and stimulation.
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for example, at the end of a class, i sometimes ask them to summarize the
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major results of the lecture in their own words on a sheet of paper which i will
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collect thereafter.  
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on the one hand, this motivates the students to reiterate what they have learned.
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on the other hand, more importantly, it
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gives me an idea of how much they have finally understood and
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indicates if additional clarifications are needed.
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with illustrative examples, short movies and small experiments
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i try to share with them my personal passion for learning and
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understanding.
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i feel it is especially rewarding when some of them choose to specialize in
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the field of engineering mechanics and ask for potential master projects
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in my group.
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it has been a great pleasure for me to supervise
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in my e14 statics course, students took photographs of themselves, to create free body diagrams, which we summarized in a
a number of master's students in the fields of
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[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v =lgQwfL_LTFY youtube movie]. 
computational and structural mechanics,
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In my {\highlight{Mechanics}} course at ETH Zurich, the students wanted to copy this idea,
multifield physics,
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{\tt{https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brzKndsq4I0}}.  
biomechanics and
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In my ME337 {\highlight{Mechanics of Growth}} course, students work in groups on individual research projects. Every year, we publish successful projects as peer-reviewed journal article:
finite element technologies.
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bone growth in a Stanford tennis player (Taylor et al.\,2009),
i currently advise three master's students,
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skin growth in plastic surgery (Buganza Tepole et al.\,2011),
in biomechanics and in applied mathmatics.
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bone growth in response to gait (Pang et al.\,2012),
in addition, I am the principal advisor of
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muscle growth in limb lengthening (Z\"ollner et al.\,2012),
five phd students working in different fields of computational mechanics.
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airway wall growth in asthma (Eskandari et al.\,2013), and
my first phd student has just defended her thesis a few weeks ago and it
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skeletal muscle growth (Wisdom et al.\,2014). Figure \ref{figure9} illustrates my new course, ME334 {\highlight{Mechanics of the Brain}}, which was a tremendous success with both undergraduate and graduate students. Within my twenty years of undergraduate and graduate teaching, I have always tried to challenge my students and create a stimulating atmosphere in class. For me, sharing knowledge with others and broadening my own horizon through interacting with students is one of the most rewarding experiences of being a professor at Stanford!
is personally satisfying to see how she has developed.
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to me, understanding how people learn is one of the most
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significant gateways to improve teaching.  
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during my academic career, i have been exposed to many different universities and
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teaching philosophies. It has always been important for me not only to
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teach courses myself
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but also to follow courses and learn from others which i still actively do.
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over the past years, I have had the privilege to
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get to know many fascinating teachers like
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erwin stein, ekkehard ramm, rene de borst, christian miehe, paul steinmann and michael ortiz.
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i especially admire their ability to communicate effectively to their students
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and i have sought to adopt parts of their teaching style in my own classes.
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i am continuously trying to develop a friendly atmosphere in class and
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to encourage the students to provide feedback and criticism.
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i strongly believe that my students can learn as much from me as i
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can actually learn from every single one of them!
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spring 2015
 
spring 2015

Revision as of 15:17, 6 June 2015

teaching philosophy

i am excited about teaching and lifelong learning. in all my courses, I strive to create a motivating, energetic, and engaging learning experience. at stanford, i have taught the core me undergraduate/graduate courses e14 statics, me309 finite elements, and me338 continuum mechanics. i have also introduced three new multidisciplinary undergraduate/graduate courses, me239 mechanics of the cell, me334 mechanics of the brain, and me337 mechanics of growth. prior to joining stanford, i taught linear and nonlinear finite element methods and linear and nonlinear continuum mechanics at the universities of hannover, stuttgart, and kaiserslautern. at kaiserslautern, i taught the undergraduate courses statics, dynamics, and strength of materials with an enrollment of 314 and 289 students. at eth zurich, i taught the undergraduate course mechanics with an enrollment of 155 students.

in my e14 statics course, students took photographs of themselves, to create free body diagrams, which we summarized in a =lgQwfL_LTFY youtube movie. In my {\highlight{Mechanics}} course at ETH Zurich, the students wanted to copy this idea, {\tt{https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brzKndsq4I0}}. In my ME337 {\highlight{Mechanics of Growth}} course, students work in groups on individual research projects. Every year, we publish successful projects as peer-reviewed journal article: bone growth in a Stanford tennis player (Taylor et al.\,2009), skin growth in plastic surgery (Buganza Tepole et al.\,2011), bone growth in response to gait (Pang et al.\,2012), muscle growth in limb lengthening (Z\"ollner et al.\,2012), airway wall growth in asthma (Eskandari et al.\,2013), and skeletal muscle growth (Wisdom et al.\,2014). Figure \ref{figure9} illustrates my new course, ME334 {\highlight{Mechanics of the Brain}}, which was a tremendous success with both undergraduate and graduate students. Within my twenty years of undergraduate and graduate teaching, I have always tried to challenge my students and create a stimulating atmosphere in class. For me, sharing knowledge with others and broadening my own horizon through interacting with students is one of the most rewarding experiences of being a professor at Stanford!

spring 2015