Professor, Earth and Planetary Sciences (Astronomy)
Santa Barbara City College
From our interview
Erin O’Connor is a Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Santa Barbara City College, having first taught there as a full-time temporary and Adjunct instructor over 30 years ago while completing his Masters in Statistics at UC Santa Barbara. He has taught at UCSB, Cal Poly SLO, Alan Allan Hancock College, and Ventura College, and also spent 2 years as a high school teacher (and has experience working as an engineer both in the US and overseas). His present teaching focuses on introductory level Astronomy and Geology field courses, but he has the whole spectrum of advanced topics and all levels of alg/trig/calc-based physics courses.
O’Connor says that he got into teaching at the community college level because of the diversity of the student population, and the desire to inspire, educate, and empower a broad class of students.
“I really enjoy getting students excited about learning more, about doing more with their lives… At the community college, a lot of them are like ‘I’m afraid of science, I don’t do math,’ and then I’ve had many students who have opened up their eyes and said ‘maybe I like this stuff, maybe I want to do something with it,’ and to me that feeds my energy, my soul; that’s what I like. “
Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM), O’Connor continues, can complement that goal.
“I’m a believer in STEM as a vehicle. I don’t think STEM is for everyone or that it’s better than everything else, but it’s a tremendous vehicle for students to progress, to find opportunities for advancement, a lot of job opportunities, a lot of career potential, and they can always switch to something else.“
From Day 1, O’Connor strives to generate a feeling of “trying to learn about the world around us” by reading a quote from Richard Feynman, discussing the beauty of the world and the beauty of physics as it aims to understand that world. In introductory courses, he finds it valuable talking not in the “language of math and science” but speaking to students on a personal level. This kind of humanization of the sciences, he describes, allows students to feel less intimidated, and that speaking their language gives a common goal to learn about and appreciate the beauty of things. O’Connor similarly echoes Feynman’s sentiment that as a teacher, if you can’t “explain a difficult thing to someone who doesn’t know anything about it, then you don’t really understand it yourself.”
In addition, O’Connor strives to create a fun, welcoming classroom environment which encourages students to come to class and participate regularly.
“Especially when students don’t live on campus, it’s all about engagement and getting them to participate and feel like they’re involved. I say I like to ‘trick them into learning.’ Instead of demanding they come to class every day, and being all huffy and puffy about them missing class, I set up a structure that rewards them — the carrot, rather than the stick — for coming. I say you’ll get a few points for being in class.”
O’Connor emphasizes the importance of field trips and hands-on experience both for learning and building classroom community. He notes that it is important to provide low-cost field trips (e.g. Griffiths observatory is free and planetarium shows are cheap), and he suggests to look for funds through your home institution or searching out donors. Many companies, he points out, would be happy to give money or equipment towards education. Field trips themselves also don’t have to be that expensive. For example, in astronomy, star parties featuring telescopes can be hosted for little or no cost if the school already has telescopes for labs, and are an easy and fun way to create a close class culture. He also points out that often colleges and universities will have club funding available, which can be used to support course-related field trips (and thus help students who are financially disadvantaged). O’Connor also stresses making it “really clear that what’s important is everyone’s participation and that everyone is invited and if you can’t afford it then we’ll make it work out.”
Although there is pressure to cover a certain amount of content as an instructor, O’Connor recommends “peppering” lectures with relevant personal anecdotes, stories, and demonstrations. He advocates for providing additional content online, both videos and other demos, which students can look at and learn from outside of class. He also recommends the use of clickers in large classes, and giving partial credit for attempts rather than just correct answers. In class, O’Connor weaves in fun, creative exercises like dry ice hot potato races, experiments on exploding a microwave; many of these demos can still be found on his website. He also encourages students to perform raps, speeches, and other creative outlets, generally as extra credit assignments.
“They’ll do 10 times more work for extra credit than for the real thing, and so I think I can trick them into getting more engaged and into learning [that way]. If you force them to do [“creative” assignments like making an astronomy rap] then some students will turn against you.”
In addition to demonstrations, creative extra credit, and field trips, he is a co-advisor for the astronomy club which throws a pizza party every year, using free food to entice students to come, talk to each other, get to know each other, find common interest, and to build cohesion. He attributes some of these techniques to his time teaching high school, where more active learning is not just useful, but necessary to keep students engaged.
“Teaching high school was the hardest thing I ever did, and the most meaningful… These kids are so special, and so wonderful, and they are afraid, and at the same time so talented, and they’re going to change the world, and if you can’t ignite that flame, it will go out. I took the things that I learned teaching high school… [People] assume that what works at the high school level won’t work at the college level, but it does”
When it comes to for-credit assignments, O’Connor’s experience suggests that multiple, tiered assessments of varying difficulty, are more effective especially for educating a mixed-background class than few high-risk assessments.
“Having assignments that can be multi-level, I think [they] are really important. I might have some introductory kind of things, and then I might have some more challenging assignments. But [I let] the student know that this is the more challenging one, and that maybe this one is extra credit, or that this one is not for everyone and that if you don’t get it right you’re not a failure, you’re not stupid, you’re not going to do poorly in the class. And [I set] up grading in that way also works [with that]… “
O’Connor also advocates for transparency and mindfulness in grading; the students should understand why assessments are being given and what they are testing for.
“The way you structure assessment [matters] — as a teacher, being cognitively aware of the structure of the class, and how it’s going to be seen by a student who’s a little more intimidated or scared, and you really want to dispel that.”
“Never test or quiz on something you didn’t talk about in class or that isn’t available to the class, the students will think it’s unfair. It’s harder for some classes than others, but if you’re clever about making sure no one feels alienated, it can work.“
However, he reminds that this isn’t aimed at making classes easy; quite the opposite.
“How do you maintain high academic standards at the same time and allow flexibility and continue to be welcoming and inviting to students from disadvantaged or socioeconomically challenged backgrounds? I do not have a simple answer for you; I think it’s all about strategies, the kind of classroom environment you set up, whether you’re approachable, whether there is flexibility in your grading system.”
“You do have to set the bar high. Students are smart, if they don’t need to work for something, they’re smart enough to not work for it. That’s a sign of intelligence, actually. So, you do have to have requirements, you do have to have the bar set high. It’s all about helping the disadvantaged students reach the bar, not lowering the bar. That’s my whole thing.”
To do this, O’Connor recommends having deadlines, but granting extensions when needed (which isn’t at all lowering the bar – they still have to do the work anyway) and checking in with students. He also stresses the importance of making yourself and your students aware of the resources available on campus (tutoring, EOPS, financial aid, etc). Finally, O’Connor stresses that one-on-one interactions, such as during office hours and before or after class (he always encourages students to meet with him right after class while questions are fresh), make the biggest difference in supporting students who are struggling, as it shows you are invested in them and they become invested in return.
To O’Connor, there is tremendous pedagogical value in putting in effort as an instructor, and avoiding the less rewarding “minimalist” approach to teaching which leaves struggling students behind.
“Students are much more advanced, much more sophisticated than teachers sometimes give them credit for. They immediately can see if you care, if you are invested in the process or if you are putting in time and energy. They see that and they are very responsive to that. So they see me trying, and they try back.”
After all, many students have the resources and capability to learn on their own. For O’Connor, being an effective instructor is about more than just presenting information.
“What is the value that you offer as a teacher in the classroom? That’s to get them to show up, to get them to engage, and to get them to care, and to get them to participate. Especially in today’s age of books and zooms and youtube videos and tremendous resources. Don’t take a forceful approach, take a ‘carrot’ inviting approach… especially for the silly stuff.”
“As a teacher, we have a role to teach, but there’s a bigger role of mentorship, and of… physically being in that classroom and having other people from different backgrounds see you there symbolically showing them that they can succeed and do that.”
This is especially important for teachers from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds, or who represent different races, genders, or ethnic heritage.
“Teaching a student how to learn is way more important than teaching them what to learn”
For more information, see this recent article about him in the SBCC Channels Newspaper, and his teaching website http://www.fieldstudy.com/
E Pluribus Classroom 