{"id":678052,"date":"2025-11-10T14:35:47","date_gmt":"2025-11-10T19:35:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/?p=678052"},"modified":"2025-11-11T07:57:52","modified_gmt":"2025-11-11T12:57:52","slug":"michael-clark-inspiring-learning-through-asking-questions-678052","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/michael-clark-inspiring-learning-through-asking-questions-678052\/","title":{"rendered":"Michael Clark: Inspiring learning through the art of asking questions"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Goergen Award\u2013winning lecturer keeps students engaged with workshops and critical thinking exercises.<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Lectures presented by Professor Michael Clark<\/a> center on collaboration, not recitation.<\/p>\n

\u201cInstead of seeing myself as a messenger of knowledge, I consider teaching as an interactive process where students and I figure out things together,\u201d says Clark, a professor of instruction in the University of Rochester<\/a>\u2019s Department of Biology<\/a>. \u201cI want students to be engaged with the material. Ideally, they should be constantly asking questions. And I want them to think like scientists. That\u2019s my major goal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Clark\u2019s interactive approach to instruction, which includes in-class discussions, workshops, and frequent office hours, earned the biologist this year\u2019s Goergen Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching<\/a>. Nominations for the Goergen Award come from students, faculty, staff members, and administrators.<\/p>\n

\u201cDespite the enormous size of his classes, the students report a deep, personal connection to him,\u201d wrote the Department of Biology\u2019s Awards Committee in its recommendation.\u00a0 \u201cHe makes it very comfortable for them to ask questions, his passion rubs off on them, and he seems to have an endless supply of energy, time, and patience to devote to his students. Michael\u2019s impact on UR undergraduates has been broad and deep.\u201d<\/p>\n

Inspiring curiosity in every student<\/strong><\/h3>\n
\"Michael
Michael Clark (University of Rochester photo \/ J. Adam Fenster)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Annie Ganem \u201926 took high school biology over Zoom and was nervous about walking into Clark\u2019s 8 a.m. biology class as a first-year student at URochester. Ganem sat in the last row of the packed auditorium that day, bracing for the worst.<\/p>\n

But, Ganem recalls, \u201cfrom the moment Professor Clark started his lecture, I was engaged. He made me excited to learn. His ability to explain complex, scientific concepts in a simple and digestible way is unmatched. You can feel Professor Clark\u2019s love of biology through his lectures as well as office hours. It is also evident that he has a passion for teaching.\u201d<\/p>\n

Clark, who enjoys teaching large classes, has 300 students this semester in his Biology 110 courses. As is often the case, students\u2019 experience with science varies from those who have taken several science courses to those who are taking their very first course.<\/p>\n

\u201cI try to make my lectures understandable to a very broad group and still challenge students who already know a lot of the material we\u2019re covering,\u201d says Clark. \u201cI want them to leave my classes more excited about biology and science in general.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jervon Cole \u201927 says many students have benefited from Clark\u2019s enthusiasm for course content, engaging workshop problems, and plentiful office hours.<\/p>\n

\u201cDr. Clark does an excellent job of explaining content in more than one way, often with visual aids, mnemonics, or physical representations like a rope with different colors of tape to represent protein foldings,\u201d says Cole, who took Clark\u2019s BIO 110 course in 2023. \u201cDr. Clark is the reason that I switched from a psychology major to a biology major, and I have not looked back since.\u201d<\/p>\n

From the lab to the lecture hall<\/strong><\/h3>\n

For Clark, standing in front of hundreds of students in a lecture hall isn\u2019t where he thought he would be when he secured his first postdoctoral research associate position in 1998 at the University of Chicago and his second in 2004 at URochester.<\/p>\n

Back then, his goal was to run his own lab at a university. Yet by the time he felt comfortably qualified to do so, he realized running a lab was no longer what he wanted to do. With some hesitancy about leaving behind research, he decided to forge a new path.<\/p>\n

Then, in what turned out to be fortuitous timing, an instructor position became available in the biology department in 2011. Clark was encouraged to apply and did so.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn hindsight, that was the best decision I ever made,\u201d says Clark. \u201cI love teaching far more than I ever could have imagined.\u201d<\/p>\n

What URochester students say about Michael Clark<\/strong><\/h3>\n
\n

\u201cDr. Clark is very accessible and willing to offer his invaluable support. He has office hours available every day from Monday to Friday and we as students find them very helpful not only to get our questions answered, but also to connect and interact with the professor. To his students, he always says, \u2018if my door is open, you are always welcome to knock and come in to chat, even if it\u2019s not my office hours times.\u2019<\/span>\u201d
\n\u2014Christina Wang \u201926<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cDuring my four years as an undergraduate student at the University of Rochester, I never met an instructor so dedicated, caring about his students, and passionate about biology. In fact, if I hadn\u2019t met him, I would not have chosen to pursue biology at all. Due to his influence, I am now working in a surgery and immunology research lab at the Duke University School of Medicine.\u201d
\n\u2014Angela Park \u201922<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cHaving Dr. Clark for one of the first classes I ever took at University of Rochester set the scene for the academic rigor that I would expect for the next few years but also what it means to have an outstanding professor.\u201d
\n\u2014Alyssa Adela Cisneros \u201926<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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