Teaching Statement Amy Ashurst Gooch - Department of Computer ...

Teaching Statement
Amy Ashurst Gooch
The responsibility of teaching extends beyond the classroom, pervading both research laboratory and individual
interactions. My main goal as a teacher is to prepare students for life after graduation with a balance
of theory (”why does it work?”) and practice (”how does it work?”). Additionally, I strive to provide students
the ability of ”how to learn,” to be able to think on their feet. Computer science as a field evolves very
quickly, so students in computer science must acquire skills that allow them to constantly learn effectively. I
accomplish this through student-teacher interactions and interesting projects, as well as evaluating the success
of my teaching as an on-going process through formative, summative and other methods of teaching
assessment.
Interactions
I find teaching very gratifying because it requires that you learn the material in depth enough to explain
it to someone else. I found a similar experience when writing research overviews for ”Non-Photorealistic
Rendering” (book published by AK Peters in 2001). There is nothing like trying to explain something to
someone else to make you understand a subject. In addition I arrive early to answer student questions in the
classroom and maintain an open-door policy, to allow one-on-one undergraduate and graduate advising. In
my lectures, I follow a rule I was once told: ”students can only listen for about 20 minutes”. Therefore I try
to break up the class with lectures, question and answer periods and interactive demonstrations.
Excitement
Challenging classes taught with energy and enthusiasm are self-motivating and fun for both the instructor
and students. As a scientist who specializes in visual metaphors, I like to teach my classes with a strong
visual component. Almost any computer science class can be taught in the guise of computer graphics
(ACM SIGGRAPH Education Committee meeting on Visual Learning for Science and Engineering [?]).
Several programs that teach an entire computer science undergraduate curriculum with computer graphics
currently exist, such as the one at Clemson University. I believe this is especially appealing for introductory
computer science courses. Additionally, computer graphics and education may provide potential funding
avenues, especially when paired with educational evaluation to examine student learning and retention in
the computer science program. I am currently incorporating such changes into the classes I teach, especially
CSC 212, and new courses I will be creating with the members of the graphics group: a first year animation
course, the CSC 205 (2D computer graphics) and CSC 47X courses in Modeling, Animation, and Rendering.
Formative Assessment
I find that students are very motivated when given visually-based assignments with open-ended projects that
allow students to learn the topic (purpose of the assignment) while still having artistic freedom over the content.
Additionally, I feel it is important for students to create test cases, in addition to developing presentation
and writing skills. Time permitting, I also like to include feedback and critiques on each assignment/project
from both peers and instructor. Computer scientists and investigators in fields such as nanotechnology, bioengineering,
mathematics, and physics mutually benefit from collaboration. In my course preparation, I
develop lectures, projects, and assignment that incorporate real world, cross-disciplinary issues. I also add
interesting historic tid-bits help to break up the monotony of lecturing, such as adding information about the
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esearchers behind the techniques (e.g. Phong, Gouraud, Warnock, and Blinn) and other trivia (e.g. origins
of the Utah teapot).
After attending the Summer 2008 UVic Learning and Teaching Center’s Course Redesign Workshop, I
learned that there is a formalism for activities that students do to practice material they are exposed to in
class, in lab, and in assignments with methods that provide peer and instructor feedback called Formative
Assessment. I’ve now incorporated this concept into my teaching through lab exercises or in class exercises
that include self, peer, or instructor assessment. Peer assessment can be a daunting task for some people,
especially in introductory courses, so I assign them alias that they use for written and online assignments, as
well as critiques, allowing students to remain virtually anonymous.
An example of one of my formative assessment exercises used when I teach algorithms in CSC212 is to have
students think about building a peanut butter sandwich. I have everyone start with a clean sheet of paper,
and place their alias at the top of the paper. Students are asked to ”Explain to a 7 year old, how you would
make a peanut butter sandwich. State what things you start with, your initial conditions, and what abilities
do you assume the 7 year old has or instructions they understand? All someone has is what is on your paper;
they have no knowledge unless you specify it. Remember to state your assumptions.”
Students will pass them all in and I’ll pick 3 volunteers to come and execute someone’s instructions using
real bread, peanut butter, etc. (I’ll choose which ones to execute). This in class activity of practicing writing
algorithms will be talked about in class with regard to how the algorithms have to be modified to explain
this same task to a computer? (tie in notions of function, variables, control logic, etc...)
The in-class practice is followed up by having students assigned a random person’s algorithm, and they are
asked to fix the problems contained in the hand-in version and present their new solution online in a forum.
This way they get exposure to other people’s work, methodology and a chance view a rewrite of their initial
solution. There is no right answer, and the students are given participation points, but not graded, allowing
them to practice ideas with out feel of penalty.
Summative Assessment As instructors, in the end we have to report summative assessment, ie the
grades we assign to assignments, projects, quizzes, exams, participation. In my courses, especially those
heavily weighted toward projects, I expect everyone to be able to get an A, if the put in the effort. I do not
water down my courses to make this possible, but set up my students to succeed, with the right information
to start with, and assignments that make them do the discovery in a manageable amount of time.
Teaching Assessment Although I also use student-teacher evaluations to constantly refine the class
lectures and assignments from one class to the next, and one course to the next, I’ve found that this kind
of teaching assessment comes too late. In the past I’ve used weekly quizzes to find out what students understand,
and where their understanding fall short. Recently I’ve also incorporated two other assessment
techniques. First I have student hand-in at the beginning of each week, the most important 2 concepts from
their assigned reading, and then document the ideas they found confusing. I go through these in class, and
try to aim my lecture to answer their questions. Second, I use a note card every other week, in which students
write on one side their major achievement in this class (a positive thing, to let them think about what they
have learned, what they have achieved) and on the other side, list anything they are confused about or would
like to know more about (their chance to guide where we go next).
New Curriculum Proposed
Co-created new courses approved by faculty for addition in the 2009-2010 calendar year
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CSC 205: 2D Computer Graphics and Image Processing
CSC 471: Fundamentals of Computer Rendering
CSC 472: Fundamentals of Computer Modeling
CSC 473: Fundamentals of Computer Animation
CSC 486: Special Topics in Computer Graphics
Teaching and Advising Experience
Fall 2008, CSC 485: Generating Animations: Software & Scripting
Fall 2008, CSC 212: Practical Computer Science
Summer 2008, CSC 305: Introduction to Computer Graphics
Summer 2008, CSC 490 (Directed Studies): Tom Spreen CubeRoids http://spreenblog.blogspot. com/
Spring 2008, CSC 305: Introduction to Computer Graphics
Fall 2007, CSC 591: (Directed Studies): Sven Olsen: Multispectral Imagery for Computational Photography
Fall 2007, CSC 591: (Directed Studies): Sam Rossoff: Multispectral Imagery for Computational Photography
Fall 2007, CSC 591: (Directed Studies): Jeremy Long: Multispectral Imagery for Computational Photography
Fall 2007, CSC 212: Practical Computer Science
Spring 2007, CSC 485: Special Topics: Computational Aesthetics
Spring 2006, Northwestern University, Games and Computer Science. During Spring 2006, I will be
co-taught a Gaming Production and Development for Multiple hardware Platforms, for which we were
given a Microsoft Research Computer Game Production Curriculum Award of $80,000. Computer game
design and development provides students with an opportunity to bring together the theory of algorithms
and data structures taught in early classes in an engaging and meaningful application. A course on
computer game authoring also fosters teamwork among students, while combining concepts from art
and physics with programming to create a tangible product.
Summer 2004, Spring 2005 Northwestern University, School of Continuing Studies, Animation Course.
Fall 2003/2004, Winter 2004, Northwestern University, School of Continuing Studies, Introduction and
Advanced Computer Graphics Courses. I added a 2-quarter computer graphics class to the curriculum
for professionals seeking a Masters Degree in Computer Information Systems.
Advising and Undergraduates in research. Over the years as a PhD student Northwestern (2004present)
and as Research Scientist in the Perception and Computer Graphics research group at Utah
(1998-2003), I have advised 12 undergraduate students in summer research internships and have gained
an appreciation for the impact teaching and research can have in the direction students take when finishing
their undergraduate career. Also, while working on a master’s degree (1995-1998), I was a teaching
assistant for Utah’s High School Summer Computing Institute and was a guest lecturer in the University
of Utah’s Art Department Senior and MFA Seminars. Additionally, in teaching my animation class,
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I’ve been able to interest students in pursuing research projects with faculty to conduct more in depth
learning into topics we could cover only briefly in class.
At the University of Victoria, I’ve lead one undergraduate in a directed study, as well as 3 graduate
students on directed studies.
I enjoy developing and teaching. My experience building courses in computer graphics and animation at
both the graduate and undergraduate levels fed a passionate belief that graphics in introductory computer
science classes can attract and retain students, especially females and minorities. I believe that by balancing
theory with visual applications, my students gain the knowledge to not just solve specific problems presented
in class, but the knowledge of how they can apply these techniques to solve problems outside the scope of
the class.
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