teach.html

"Wakonse" is a Lakota Indian word that, roughly translated, means to teach or inspire.

Martyn Gunn's Teaching Page

How I teach what I teach.

Who is Martyn Gunn and what does he teach?

How to do well and achieve your goal!

Habits to Avoid

How to develop good study habits

GaBEE

Must see science web sites

This tree is the symbol of the Wakonse Foundation that sponsors the Wakonse Conference on College Teaching each May.
Here at Texas A&M we have our own Wakonse South meeting each April at Balcones Springs in the Hill Country.

Teaching is a lifelong art.......that involves continuous learning not just for the student but for the teacher as well Katz & Henry

Who is Martyn Gunn and what does he teach?

Read my autobiography

here

Read about my research here

In my teaching I stress principles, concepts and recurring themes.

We both have the same goals -- we both want to do well.

My goal

Your goal

There are several ways that, working together, we can achieve these goals.

Biochemistry at first glance seems horribly complex.
But there are only a dozen principles!
And what is more there are several recurring themes common to the structure and function of molecules as well as metabolism and metabolic regulation.

My aim as a teacher is to break through the complexity, lead you through the underlying concepts and point out the recurring themes.
While you will learn a lot of facts about each tree in the forest, I want you to appreciate the forest as a whole, to appreciate why biochemistry plays such a central role in our understanding of the life sciences.

Visit the BICH 107, Horizons in Biological Chemistry web page.
Visit the BICH 440/441 Honors, Biochemistry I and II web pages.
Visit the Life Sciences Learning Community

Return to the menu at the top of this page.

How to do well and achieve your goal

Most of these ideas apply not only to my courses and not only to biochemistry, but to any course at A&M.

Be prepared!

Make sure you have good grades in any prerequisite courses.
Commit information to long-term memory -- then you don't have to learn it twice!
Attend class and come prepared. Lectures are to help you understand the material. Come to lecture prepared!
Read the textbook before coming to class. It takes maybe 20 minutes to cover the material.
Read the textbook after class. It takes maybe 20 minutes to cover the material.
Read the class notes.

Understand what you have to learn

Like a lot of professors, I use an objective approach in lecture: each topic has a series of learning objectives -- I teach to those objectives and test those objectives. So learn 'em!
Work the problems in the textbook or on old exams -- if you get stuck attend office hours.
Ask questions. Always ask lots of questions

Know your professors.

See the Professor when you need help.
Take advantage of office hours as the need arises, not just before an exam. Don't leave it too late. Ask questions.
Use on-line help. e-mail the professor (often the best way to get a quick answer!).

Seek help.

Take advantage of Supplemental Instruction if available: it really works!
Attend office hours with questions.
Attend help sessions with questions.
Form a study group with your class mates.

And last but not least, develop good study habits.

Return to the menu at the top of this page.

"When did you stop being a professor and start being a teacher?"

Habits to avoid.

I only study just before an exam.
I just want to get by -- all I need in this course is a D (or a C).
Don't ask me to think, just tell me what I need to know.

Do you rarely or never:

ask questions?
attend office hours?
get to know the professor?
attend class?
work problems?

Then you are short-changing yourself and restricting your career options!

read the text
attend class students who attend class do significantly better than students who cut class
ask questions students who ask questions show they are thinking about the subject
work problems you can only work problems when you master the material
restrict work students who work more than 10 hours per week do significantly worse in biochemistry than students who work less than 10 hours wer week

Change now before its too late!

Return to the menu at the top of this page.

It's not high school anymore -- college is a full time job!

How to develop good study habits

You don't have to be a nerd.
You don't have to spend all your time studying.
Here are a number of tricks to help your long-term memory.

Find out how you learn -- people are different.
Take a free

test to determine your learning style

Repeating: read over the material before class, after class, and in between classes.

Reciting: talk to yourself -- vocalizing key words and phrases provides feedback.

Writing: scribbling key words, phrases, definitions, equations, structures, interrelationships, etc, helps you concentrate and provides further feedback as you read and vocalize.

Chunking: group facts into small chunks.

Concentrating: ever wonder why class periods are 50 minutes? Study more frequently and more intensely, but for shorter periods. I suggest no more than an hour at a time.