I also like to investigate the effectiveness of various active learning, topic-oriented, and group approaches. My teaching evolves as I try various methods to find out what works well for me and for the students. This dynamic effort keeps me excited about teaching, and I feel this excitement inspires the students as well. My research with undergraduate students involves the design of chemical sensors to measure air pollutant concentrations in the lower atmosphere. Understanding the transport and degradation of air pollutants requires accurate, routine monitoring of their concentration.
Continuous monitoring is prohibitively expensive with current technology.
Thus, new and inexpensive strategies are needed for measuring air pollutant concentrations. Chemical sensors are an obvious choice. SPR uses a laser to monitor the thickness of material on the surface of a piece of gold. Then, the coated gold surface is exposed to air, and the desired pollutant sticks to the surface. SPR measures the thickness of the pollutant layer, which is related to its concentration in the air.