My Teaching Philosophy
Dr. Choudhury’s main philosophy of teaching is to help students to learn new things and inspire them to aim high. He always tries to create an environment where the students feel comfortable to ask questions, promote critical thinking and share their difficulty in learning. His classes are always very interactive, engaging, and focused on students’ future goals and personal growth.
Dr. Choudhury’s main area of teaching involves inorganic, solid state and materials chemistry. Besides his expert area (inorganic chemistry) he has always cooperated with the departmental needs for teaching courses that are outside his typical subject area and also participated freshman chemistry teaching mission.
Courses Taught
Dr. Choudhury enjoys teaching at both undergraduate and graduate students. He has taught physical chemistry (CHEM 3410: Chemical Thermodynamics I) course for six years (2011 – 2016) and currently teaches inorganic chemistry (CHEM 2320: Inorganic Chemistry II) for undergraduate chemistry majors. He is actively involved in teaching freshman chemistry lab course (CHEM 1319) and freshman chemistry lecture/recitation (CHEM 1310). He also teaches a higher level inorganic chemistry that bridges senior undergraduate and Masters/PhD inorganic Chemistry (CHEM 4310: Selected topics in Inorganic Chemistry and CHEM 5310: Introduction to Inorganic Chemistry) in every alternate Fall (even years). He has developed a graduate level (CHEM 6320) course in solid state chemistry, which is taught in every alternate fall semester (odd years) .
Besides teaching he is also the current seminar coordinator/instructor (CHEM 6010) where he runs a seminar program consisting of invited external and local speakers and schedules mandatory seminar for graduate students. He is also the current coordinator of the colloquium program of Chemistry.
CHEM 2320: Inorganic Chemistry II
In this course coordination chemistry is taught extensively. The students will get to know lot of application of coordination chemistry and organometallic chemistry into catalysis and bio-inorganic chemistry. They will also learn lot about solid-state chemistry and chemistry of lanthanides and actinides.
- Semester taught: Every Spring
- Syllabus: Can be found in Canvas
CHEM 4310: Selected topics in Inorganic Chemistry and CHEM 5310: Introduction to Inorganic Chemistry
In this course the students will get to learn about bonding, symmetry, a deeper understanding of coordination and organometallic chemistry, bio-inorganic chemistry and chemistry of lanthanides and actinides.
- Semester taught: Every Fall
- Syllabus: in Canvas
Teaching Methods and Approaches
Dr. Choudhury employs traditional teaching methods such as extensive use of black/white board to convey the concepts. The students are supposed to take notes from those board works. For some difficult to understand or the concepts that are not well-explained in the recommended text book, Dr. Choudhury uses his own hand-outs and makes them available in the canvas for the students. Students learning assessments are done through homework/assignments, in-class quizzes, two mid-term exams and one final exam.
Student Engagement
The classes are generally very interactive and students are encouraged to active participation in discussions during the class. As an instructor Dr. Choudhury is always open to questions during the class and as well as outside the class during office hours.
Office Hours
I hold office hours on Tuesday and Thursday from 12:15 to 1:15 pm for CHEM 5310/CHEM 3410 during Fall. Monday and Friday 11-12 pm for CHEM 2320 during Spring.
Besides office hours, appointments can also be scheduled via email, choudhurya@mst.edu.
Resources for Students
Besides the recommended text book, Dr. Choudhury regularly uploads sample questions, additional study materials and important handouts in Canvas. The students get alerted via e-mail whenever Dr. Choudhury uploads any material in Canvas.
Contact
Feel free to reach out to me at choudhurya@mst.edu or during my office hours for any questions or clarifications.