Bradley Nilsson, associate professor of chemistry,\u00a0is among one of the 2016 recipients of the\u00a0Goergen Awards for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching.<\/p>\n
I was originally a biology major and planned to go to med school. If someone told me my freshman year that I\u2019d become a chemistry professor, I\u2019d have thought they were crazy.<\/strong><\/p>\n I had to take chemistry classes at BYU, and after taking two my freshmen year, I didn\u2019t find them very enjoyable. It was very dry. But I was fortunate to find an organic chemist who became my mentor and changed my life. I got into his lab, and organic chemistry came alive to me. I realized I liked going into the lab and learning things where there was no right answer. I thought, \u201cThis is something I can see myself doing for the rest of my life.\u201d<\/p>\n When you\u2019re teaching 30 or 40 students, you can quickly see if the class is with you or not. With 300-plus students, you can\u2019t even see the last two-thirds of the group so it\u2019s hard to know if they\u2019re following you or not.<\/strong><\/p>\n I wanted to make chemistry engaging. That\u2019s what hooked me, hours outside of class going through problem sets. I decided to give my class online problem sets before I lectured on the topic. The first few years, students hated it. They\u2019d say, \u201cYou haven\u2019t even talked about it in class yet, so why are you making us do these problem sets?\u201d And I\u2019d say, \u201cThat\u2019s exactly why I\u2019m making you do them.\u201d They use the textbook to answer the questions, then it\u2019s reinforced in class. I\u2019ve seen a 10 percent improvement in grades since I started doing that.<\/p>\n Teaching is a partnership between student and instructor at the college level.<\/strong><\/p>\n There\u2019s a heavier burden of learning on the student. The professors provide a framework. It\u2019s my responsibility to make the subject material engaging, to show or say something that they\u2019ll think is cool and suck them in and then be available to walk through any issues we have.<\/p>\n I wasn\u2019t a model student. I wasn\u2019t a 4.0 GPA. I\u2019ve experienced poor grades. And that has helped me as a teacher.<\/strong><\/p>\n Sometimes as a professor, you forget that you didn\u2019t always know this stuff.\u00a0 It\u2019s easy to forget what it was like when you didn\u2019t know it. It\u2019s important to have compassion. That doesn\u2019t meet you don\u2019t teach with rigor. Students who have taken my class will agree it\u2019s not an easy \u2018A.\u2019 But for those who struggle, I tell them, \u201cYour value as a person isn\u2019t tied to how you do in organic chemistry. You can get a \u2018D\u2019 and still be a great person.\u201d<\/p>\n One thing that was started years ago in our department and is now prevalent across campus are workshop sessions, where students meet with a smaller group of peers. I find them essential.<\/strong><\/p>\n It\u2019s usually less than 10 students, and you meet with someone who has taken the course in a previous year. Their job isn\u2019t to lead or answer but to act as a discussion leader. These workshops help those students who sit in the back and don\u2019t ask questions. They\u2019re more likely to speak up in a group of 10 than 300.<\/p>\n My goal is to help students recognize they\u2019re capable of learning and mastering the material if they\u2019re willing to put in the effort. And maybe it\u2019s not the first time.<\/strong><\/p>\n I\u2019ve had several students re-take a class. One student really performed poorly and was almost embarrassed to talk about taking it again. I said \u201cLook, just because you got that grade doesn\u2019t mean that\u2019s what you\u2019re capable of. It just means the material didn\u2019t click with you.\u201d She took the class again, and this time she did really well.<\/p>\n Criticism is never fun, especially when it comes in the form of evaluations from students, but it makes you a better teacher.<\/strong><\/p>\n When you\u2019re teaching a class with 300-plus students, 10 or 15 percent are going to hate everything you do. No one likes to be criticized, and if you\u2019re not careful, that criticism can put a bitter twist on life. The key is learning to take that criticism and apply it to change, find what\u2019s the truth in the criticism and turn it into a productive outcome.<\/p>\n Mentorship in an undergraduate lab is one of the most meaningful parts of my job. My first one just finished his residency and works with the Navy, specializing in psychiatry.<\/strong><\/p>\n Mentoring undergraduates is really a synergistic experience. There’s great value in the one-to-one mentorship in terms of helping the student really begin to think critically as a scientist and a problem solver. They get a chance to work on a scientific project in which the “big picture” is usually defined for them at the beginning by the advisor. Their independent thinking comes in working on solving the inevitable day-to-day problems that come with any research project. In time, as students become more comfortable with their work, they begin to have ideas that address the “big picture” as well. This real-world problem solving is invaluable.<\/p>\n I\u2019m not all about chemistry. I have four kids of my own, from a sophomore in college to a fourth-grader, and they really are my biggest hobby.<\/strong><\/p>\n They demand a lot of your time, but I love it. They\u2019re great. I also love to read, and I love all sorts of music. When I was in high school, my dream was to play guitar in a rock band. My favorite band growing up was Van Halen, and I\u2019ve seen them three times. Last summer, I took my oldest daughter to see them. The rest of the band was pretty good, but it was pretty pathetic to see 60-year-old David Lee Roth trying to do splits off a drum riser.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Bradley Nilsson, associate professor of chemistry, is among one of the 2016 recipients of the Goergen Awards for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":672,"featured_media":185902,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[486,19862,646,16072],"class_list":["post-185872","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-awards","tag-department-of-chemistry","tag-goergen-awards","tag-school-of-arts-and-sciences"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n