Center for Teaching and Learning

Faculty Interview
Sabrina S. Fu
Natural Science/Environmental Management

Hear the audio clip about work with students on an environmental grant. (2:34)

I stopped working outside the home when our children were one and four so that we could move to Birmingham, England . I was scheduled to take a year off, and then begin working for the University of Birmingham. My husband's work didn't turn out as expected, so we came back the semester I was scheduled to begin teaching for the University of Birmingham.

After spending several months getting my family settled into our new home in Ellicott City, I began looking for a part-time job in 2001. I saw an ad in the Washington Post for an adjunct professor in science at UMUC and applied. Dr. Chris Sax interviewed me, and offered me NSCI 100 to teach. I had never taught non-science majors nor online, but am willing to try all things in life that does not harm another being, so I tried it! I hope I have not harmed anyone by doing so!

Given my initial hesitation at teaching online and teaching non-science majors, I surprised myself in how much I enjoyed teaching non-science majors online. I was even more pleased when I began teaching Environmental Management as I worked on environmental remediation for seven years prior to working at UMUC. I accepted a Collegiate Professor position at UMUC in 2004.

Three life experiences have affected my teaching at UMUC:

•  Being a mother.

•  Having lost my childhood friend to suicide/deep depression in March of 2003.

•  Getting to know UMUC students!

When I first taught at UMUC, I purposely did not put a picture of myself in my bio nor did I discuss anything personal with my students. The idea was to try and see what it is like to teach race-blind. I know my last name sort of gives me away – but I could be married to a "Fu"…..Anyway, that experiment led me to the realization that students are not motivated by a faceless personality-less being – in fact, I discovered that some students thought of me as a computer!

The first student to ask if he could meet me face to face worked at NIST. So after our class ended in the summer of 2002, I drove down to NIST to meet with Dwayne. It was wonderful getting to see where he worked and the type of work he did. I have had a number of students ask to meet me, and I have always said yes, and always after the course has ended.

Of course, face-to-face meetings are not the only way I have met students. Many students have called me, and many students have had quite some conversations with me in the classroom and via e-mail. No matter what the mode of communication, meeting these students and getting to know them has inspired me to make more connections and look for ways to enhance student learning experiences.

My teaching style and philosophy has evolved in the 5.5 years I have taught for UMUC, and continues to evolve. I think I am working toward having more multimedia and interactive learning environments, but really try to use extra technology as supplements rather than as the main learning tools. I do not want students to become frustrated with the technology because it is difficult for them to use.

My teaching philosophy has centered around "I am here to help you learn". It has been interesting trying to implement a learning environment. I am leaning toward an environment where students interact more with each other than with me. However, I think the problem with implementing this is that I talk too much! ;-0

I have heard that learning is talking and teaching is listening. I try to do this as a mother and when I interact with kids such as when I give "talks" about the environment to elementary school children. People can tell when I am listening by my facial expressions and body language. How can I get across the sense that I am "listening" with my online classes?

There are a lot of dedicated teachers at UMUC. I have listened to them and been inspired by them. I have met them at the faculty meetings, at the SCIP unit monthly meetings, at UMUC biannual faculty meetings, and at UMUC workshops. They are too many to name them all, but the two people who stick out most in my mind are Dr. Chris Sax and Dr. Pamela Witcher. Dr. Sax taught me to look at the classroom through the eyes of the student, and always have inspirational suggestions at each faculty meeting. Dr. Witcher taught me the art of effective e-mail communication and not to be shy with my electronic facial expressions!

•  I try to provide a learning environment rather than teach.

•  I use a lot of smiley faces along with my comments.

I think that much of my miscommunication with my online students in the past is a result of the lack of facial expression in the online format. For example, one of my students had made a mistake in a conference discussion that was very unusual for him – he had grasped the concepts well in class, and yet, in this one discussion, he was off target. I commented: "I am disappointed in you." I wrote it with a smile on my face and a twinkle in my eyes, which he of course did not see. He was devastated and wrote an e-mail telling me so. I realized then how words can look very different from the manner in which I intended to speak them. Hence, I am more careful with my words now, and try to add expression to my words with emoticons.

My father truly believed that science was the answer to all of society's problems. He believed it so strongly that he has three children out of three with Ph.D. degrees in science.

I went to graduate school with his belief – I worked on trying to understand catalysts that produce methanol out of CO/CO2/H2 mixtures by working with very defined surfaces, thinking this would help our energy crisis. I found out: (1) There is a big jump from ultra-high vacuum work to actual catalysts and (2) science was a minor part of our problem in the energy crisis.

I choose an even more practical problem after my post-doctoral work at NRL. The work I chose was to help with the remediation of radioactive, hazardous, and mixed wastes. I learned a lot working on these projects, not just in science, but also in the management and politics of waste remediation. Seven years of working in this field made me see the bigger picture, and science is only a part of this bigger picture. Hence enters environmental management! That is my area of interest now.

I teach, I go to conferences, I keep up with the news, I volunteer, and this semester, I began working with students on a grant.

Environmental management is very applicable to everyday life because what we choose to buy, where we choose to live, and how we choose to live all affects the environment and the environment affects us. Also, environmental management encompasses all of the major disciplines: Business, communications, psychology, philosophy/religion, science, social science, economics, and history.

Be open-minded and be ready to make a lot of different connections and think critically!