Mouchumi Bhattacharyya

I will be a teacher as long as I am excited about teaching. I think a teacher's enthusiasm can do wonders in terms of students' learning. Even though I have been teaching here at Pacific for quite a few years, I am still as excited to go into the classroom today as I was when I started my career.

I like to keep my classes interactive and lively. As I tell my students, active learning (as opposed to passive learning) helps students understand concepts at a deeper level. Even in my lower division classes, I emphasize conceptual understanding. Just being able to "plug in a number into an equation" does not go very far. Students need to understand "why" they are doing "what" they are doing.

My area of expertise is Statistics and hence I mostly teach Statistics classes. Since Statistics has wide application, in all my classes I give my students a flavor of the applied aspect of the subject. In classes such as Math 131, I incorporate applied examples from the area actuarial sciences, while for classes such as Math 37 and Math 130, I incorporate numerous applied examples from other relevant fields.

I want students to know how powerful Statistics is and what Statistics is capable of doing. In applied classes such as Math 37 and Math 130, I have my students do group or individual projects at the end of the semester. I require them to come up with their own project idea which gives them a sense of what it feels like to be a researcher. Almost every student in these classes comments on this term project as being one of the most rewarding experiences in the class.