Tobias Baumgart

I would like to begin by thanking all those outstanding teachers at Penn, in the chemistry department and elsewhere, who have allowed me to observe their teaching, either in person or electronically, or who have otherwise been inspiring. My educational journey has benefited tremendously from our learning community, and my ambition is to extend and nurture that community in my classrooms. I am hopeful that more connection and community, and less toxic competition, can help take the sting out of STEM teaching, both for our students and for us instructors. 

This community can begin with getting to know many, if not all, the individuals in the classroom. It is challenging to memorize students’ names off registration photographs that sometimes seem to bear little resemblance to the current individual in the classroom. Furthermore, the names provided in the course registration table do not always offer guidance on their pronunciation, and some students use a nickname, or prefer to use their middle name. How to get a hold of all of this? I learned from others an ice breaker activity during the first class where each student mentions their name and a fun fact, or—to provide a graceful way out—a favorite color. This only works for small classes. For larger ones, both my students and I have had fun with an assignment that could be completed during a short amount of class time or after class: 1) “Using your phone, submit to Canvas a short audio recording containing your full name, how you would like to be addressed, your choice of pronoun, as well as a fun fact (or favorite color)” and 2) “Provide a current snapshot of yourself (selfie)”. I still cherish some of the fun facts I have learned in past courses, and this activity helped me appreciate the richness of what our students bring to the table. Such fun facts also helped me quite a bit with the process of remembering names in large classes. 

For instructors to think about ‘us’ all together, instead of seeing students as ‘other,’ sounds trivial at the surface, and yet it took me more than 10 years of teaching to figure this out for myself. Recognizing that my teaching was not about ‘me’ allowed me to realize that it is OK to make the occasional mistake, and that fully owning my mistakes in front of the students, can be a genuine way of connecting. Vulnerability seems to be a stance too often interpreted as weakness for professionals in our discipline. For the STEM teacher, it may in fact be a strength. I learned from observing my colleagues the power of apologizing, of self-deprecating humor, of being less than a sage-on-the-stage while coming to class with enthusiasm about the material, especially if all this comes with being well-organized and well-prepared. 

Using music as a tool (typically in the form of a song played right before class) turned out to be a way to create community and connection in several different ways. Sometimes a short story connects a song to some course material, and some songs address emotional class experiences, such as anxiety and sadness. I have had students suggest a piece that they used as a “pump up” song in past contexts, and these songs became theme songs for our course. Soliciting song suggestions from the class helped me to be more “modern.” It is possible that playing songs of my own (likely more “antiquated”) choice before class may have had a larger effect on me than on anyone else in the classroom and that may have indirectly elevated the classroom atmosphere. I remember fairly emotional moments when listening, on the evening before class, to the song I would enjoy with my students the next day. For example, I used Kamakawiwo’Ole’s “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” when covering the blackbody spectrum (such as of the sun),  and Ashokan Farewell—a song written about human bonding and theme song for Ken Burns’s documentary on splitting and reuniting North and South—when discussing the chemical bond.  I also use a video of Rocky Balboa’s jog through Philadelphia and up the Art Museum steps during the last day of class. Shostakovich’s second waltz and an accompanying video of ballroom dance couples helped illustrate the concept (and misconceptions!) of electron pairing, and a flash mob orchestra adding one instrument after another to play Beethoven’s Ode to Joy, with a whole marketplace eventually participating, illustrated the Aufbau-principle of the periodic table, one of the most amazing insights into chemical principles. These songs helped me to think of my class at an emotional level the students had not experienced before without the help of music. 

Online course communication tools (such as EdDiscussion) further improve access to the class outside of class and office hours, especially if they offer students the chance to submit questions, comments, and concerns anonymously. Since the whole teaching team (instructor, graduate teaching assistants, and undergraduate learning assistants) as well as all other students in the course have access to the submissions as well, that too adds community to the course experience. 

Finally, I have chosen to never again teach a course where students are graded on a curve. I am aware that there are pros and cons. Given that I never had to take a curved course myself as a student, this choice came easily for me. The arguments that resonate with me are the reduction of toxic competition and the promotion of collaborative learning. In addition, absolute grade schemes allow transparency such that students always know where they stand in the course. Challenges include me having to explain to students why the absolute grade scheme changed from one year to the next, and having to explain to colleagues why the promise that everyone enrolled in the course in principle can come out with an A-grade almost became reality at the end of one semester. Those high grades raised concerns about grade inflation and fairness among different cohorts and different teachers. I’m not sure I have good answers to such concerns. My priority has been the course experience of the individual student in my course.

For those looking for more on teaching effectively and without sting, I highly recommend Kelly Hogan and Viji Sathy’s text “Inclusive Teaching,” which offers a plethora of ideas to work towards creating a class that welcomes students, Claude Steele’s “Whistling Vivaldi,” a book that can help instructors better understand why some students struggle even though they are capable, and Daniel Willingham’s “Why Don’t Students Like School,” on how the mind works and what that means for the teacher. Those books, along with numerous articles on positive psychology and inclusive teaching, have helped form my current teaching philosophy. But I have had a little more help. In closing, I’d like to thank one inspiring high school instructor who in addition to teaching us sports and French showed “that the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse.” 

Tobias Baumgart is a professor of chemistry in the School of Arts & Sciences and the 2023 recipient of the Dennis M. DeTurck Award for Innovation in Teaching.

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This essay continues the series that began in the fall of 1994 as the joint creation of the College of Arts and Sciences, the Center for Teaching and Learning, and the Lindback Society for Distinguished Teaching. 

See https://almanac.upenn.edu/talk-about-teaching-and-learning-archive for previous essays.