We do not evaluate faculty on how much they teach, but on how much their students learn. Those of us from academia have a long history of learning – and should therefore have a great deal of experience to draw upon. One of my best experiences as a learner was in my high school calculus and physics courses. Both courses were taught by the same person. What I remember most about those classes was the sense of discovery – the ‘aha!’ moments that occurred throughout the class. I realize now that those moments were the result of his careful planning – that he guided us toward the answer almost without us realizing that we were being directed.
In each of my courses, I have a few basic goals:
- Help students accept responsibility for their own learning and develop a passion for discovery.
- Teach students to think through problems logically and be able to explain their process.
- Make sure students understand the basic physical principles behind key equations and concepts and relate those concepts to their real-world experience.
- Guide students to realize how the concepts they learn in their various classes are integrated in real processes
I use several strategies to continuously improve my teaching:
- Designing varied active learning activities to appeal to different learning strategies, including in-class lectures, short on-line video lectures, and small-group problem solving activities
- Implementing team-based learning to improve engagement and shift from large-classroom to a small-group teaching environment
- Encouraging peer accountability with a peer evaluation process
- Providing more focused ‘mini-lectures’ addressing specific concerns of individual student teams
- Using real-world examples from research and industry, and allowing student teams to come up with their own solution to open-ended or forward-looking questions
- Encourage appropriate use of information technology in the classroom – for instance, using smartphones to access course materials on Canvas or look up outside data needed to solve problems.
- Use my experience in theater (I have volunteered extensively as a Master Electrician and Lighting Designer for theatrical productions) to refine classroom presentation skills – vocal inflection, control of body language, use of humor and stories to accentuate classroom material and communicate excitement for the subject.
- Be humble and honest, willing to accept constructive criticisms. Sometimes the ability to accept and understand your own mistakes can help students connect with you.
- Informal mid-semester feedback following each exam – what worked, what didn’t, and what should I be doing?
- Set high – but realistic – expectations. I have found that once the students understand what those expectations are many of them rise to the challenge. Treating them like adults allows them to treat themselves like adults and take the responsibility for their performance on themselves.
This approach can be seen in student comments, such as “Invests the time to cover examples in detail. Works clearly and easy to follow. Good communicator,” “Dr. Schlegel was willing to improve on his teaching skills and in the way he taught constantly, which was one of his biggest strengths,” “The course structure is one of the best on this campus,” and “Very tough, made me push hard to earn a grade.” The Dean of CEC observed “I am impressed by the quality and volume of your teaching, which shows true dedication to students and colleagues alike.”
Finally, we need to remember that learning should be fun. Learning is exploring the world around us in new ways. It is our responsibility to show students that even after decades of working in our fields we still enjoy our work and continue to discover new and interesting things.
Teaching Responsibilities
I am typically responsible for five classes each year: Reactor Fluid Mechanics (NUC ENG 3221), Reactor Heat Transfer (NUC ENG 3223), Introduction to Nuclear Thermal Hydraulics (NUC ENG 4257/5257), Nuclear Systems Design I (NUC ENG 4496) and Advanced Nuclear Thermal Hydraulics (NUC ENG 6257) or Probabilistic Risk Assessment (NUC ENG 4281/5281). For several years I also taught Nuclear Systems Design I (NUC ENG 4496). Student evaluation scores for Senior and Graduate level courses have remained high, above 3.0 since my second semester at Missouri S&T and most recently near 4.0. My scores in Junior level courses have varied, but for the last three years have remained at or above 3.7. Implementing a team-based, problem-based class structure and a partially ‘flipped’ classroom, along with improvements suggested by each class and further course development, has increased my effectiveness in those courses. Overall the change in instruction method has greatly improved student engagement in the classroom and the quality of student learning, as evidenced by an Outstanding Teaching Award earned in 2021. I plan to continue developing and improving the courses over the next few years.
| Course Title | Course Number | Semester | Students | CET Score | Percent Effort |
| Reactor Heat Transfer | NUC ENG 3223 | Spring 2025 | 20 | 3.80 | 100 |
| Introduction to Nuclear Thermal Hydraulics | NUC ENG 3223 | Spring 2025 | 3 | 4.00 | 100 |
| Reactor Fluid Mechanics | NUC ENG 3221 | Fall 2024 | 20 | 3.80 | 100 |
| Nuclear System Design I | NUC ENG 4496 | Fall 2024 | 23 | 3.82 | 90 |
| Adv. Nuclear Thermal Hydraulics | NUC ENG 6257 | Fall 2024 | 4 | — | 100 |
| Reactor Heat Transfer | NUC ENG 3223 | Spring 2024 | 28 | 3.76 | 100 |
| Two-Phase Flow in Energy Systems | NUC ENG 4257 | Spring 2024 | 5 | 3.67 | 100 |
| Intro to Nuclear Thermal Hydraulics | NUC ENG 5257 | Spring 2024 | 2 | 4.00 | 100 |
| Reactor Fluid Mechanics | NUC ENG 3221 | Fall 2023 | 36 | 3.52 | 100 |
| Nuclear System Design I | NUC ENG 4496 | Fall 2023 | 18 | 3.95 | 90 |
| Probabilistic Risk Assessment | NUC ENG 5281 | Fall 2023 | 10 | 4.00 | 100 |
Office Hours
I hold office hours weekly. Appointments outside of those times can be scheduled via email (see below)
Student Evaluation Comments
Spring 2023:
Always in class on time. Cares about the students and constantly asks if there are any improvements that he can make to the class. Great at describing and showing work on the board. Class structure is very based around doing work with groups and having the professor help and push you in the right direction. Very hands on.
Greatly understands the course material and communicates it well. Asks for feedback to better improve the course for the future and then takes those into consideration for the next year.
One of the best teachers in the nuclear department. I learn so much better with his teaching style with challenge problems than just a day to day lecture. More teachers should teach like him.
The way his class is structured is very helpful. The challenge problems are very helpful for the tests and homeworks. He is always open to feedback and available for help after class. Overall amazing teacher!
The course is designed as to guarantee you understand the material very well by the test happens. Dr. Schlegal is good at using intuitive examples while teaching to demonstrate the concept in question.
Vey organized canvas page Good with getting experience with the problems on our own
Very flexible about teaching methods and open to suggestions.
He has one of the best canvas pages I have ever seen; a lot of information available to you and easy to access. He knows his stuff and knows what he expects from his students.
Homework sometimes takes 8 or more hours to complete especially the ones with 6 questions, sometimes it is extremely hard to keep up with it. I also feel like I could get a much higher test score if I just had more time to complete it or less problems.
Fall 2023:
Cares about students’ knowledge provides fantastic resources for the class.
Dr. Schlegel has a very good grasp on the theory on both teaching and reactor fluid mechanics. He is also consistently working on improving this class, that much was plenty evident through the semester as we were working through the material.
Has a plan and a process.
Receptive to student learning and changes the curve to account for that. I also really liked the amount of examples provided to help with the homeworks.
Excellent Canvas Course; Well laid out with links to follow everything and easily understood due dates – Knowledgeable; Was asked a ton of questions and still was able to produce an answer for everything. Lectures were well laid out and gave us the necessary information to complete problems – Excellent accessibility to resources; Canvas page provided many many examples of problem solving along with additional resources and everything we might need for a test or to solve a problem. – Challenge Problems; Great tool to teach us the strategies to solves all manner of problems to be thrown at us, teamwork aspect allowed us to additionally learn from each other under your guidance. – Low Stress Testing; 5 Total tests worth a reasonable portion of our grade made for a low stress environment that I still felt tested our understanding effectively.
Dr. Schlegel has developed one of the best learning environments here at S&T. The in class problems allow us to work with our teams and ask questions when necessary which helps me learn the material. Having the course split up with individual and team work makes it very doable despite the material being very difficult. Dr. Schlegel has obviously been teaching for a while because he has his class organized perfectly. His knowledge of the material always shows through his lectures and any time we need assistance.
He is very kind and approachable, and genuinely wants students to succeed.
Schlegel had the canvas course up and running before the end of the previous semester, we had all summer to prep for the course. He had modules set up with a clear schedule that we stuck to for the entirety of the class. He had his expectations laid out from the start, and had a rubric that literally gave a step-by-step set up on how he wanted his coursework completed. Excellent communication, excellent lectures and course structure. Gave us plenty of experience with many different types of problems, had examples and plenty of office hours to assist outside of class time. Asked frequently for feedback.
Dr. Schlegel effectively teaches what engineering should look like, as opposed to pure academia. This was a pivotal course in my engineering degree.
Canvas is organized well, teacher has unique class format that pushes applications, and maintains a professional demeanor while keeping a fun classroom atmosphere.
Information during lectures was clear and he made sure to fill gaps left from earlier classes. He was very clear about his expectations from day one and held us and himself to these expectations. In class it is great that you are willing to fully explain the material even if the question is something very simple. Often times the small/unimportant topics from gen ed class are easily forgotten and it is nice to have a professor who is willing to help us relearn these topics.
I feel like sometimes the homework is but different than what he teaches in class or lectures. I find myself needing material or other lectures outside the class in order to complete assignments
Dr. Schlegel is very knowledgeable. His insight regarding nuclear engineering has been vital in progressing our Senior Design Projects.
He values the education of his students. He is very knowledgeable and informs us of mistakes as well as what we need to do to fix them. Would be nervous in this class if I had any other teacher.
Dr. Schlegel sets clear goals and structures all of his courses around said goals. He is excellent at providing feedback and has keen interest in the development of his students.
Has great knowledge in all fields of the nuclear industry which is massively helpful for this class. Allows us to try and fail but never criticizes us just slightly steers us in the right direction.
It is obvious that he cares about our learning. Does a very good job explaining our mistakes and how to fix them. He is very good at setting us up for success.
He always has great advice for our senior design projects. He genuinely cares about his students and is always on our side.
He gives really good feedback. It’s never corrected in a way that makes you feel dumb, even if it can sometimes seem like common sense.
He is indeed an excellent teacher. He gives relatable, and practical meanings to the most abstract of concepts in the course. He is superb in the way he imparts the knowledge sequentially to make the whole of the course make sense. Good at instilling confidence in us in the class. He is a good respecter of time.
Spring 2024:
Very knowledgeable and did a very good job of teaching the course. The set up of the course was amazing and felt very fair and it was easy to get an A as long as you applied yourself.
Well Laid Out Course; the heavy blend of both in-class work and teaching works great for the content being taught and leaves you with a preparedness for both the test and understanding real world application. – Exceptional Canvas Course; Exceptionally well laid out and packed full of resources to enhance and keep track of one’s learning. Recorded lectures were a huge plus. – Very Receptive to Feedback; Consistently sought feedback from students and actively worked to improve parts of the course even as we were taking it. – Worked Hard for Us Despite Challenges; Through 2 different health problems, worked hard to prepare and provide quality instruction to us and this was very much appreciated and respected.
He is very good at challenging students to truly learn the material, rather than just memorize and regurgitate it.
Dr. Schlegel has one of the best structured courses you will take as a Nuclear Undergrad. His course and expectations are extremely consistent, he provides a ton of resources for you to look through, and he’s readily available to answer questions. He frequently asks for and responds to feedback.
Dr. Schlegel is always open to talking about subject material and going further in depth. The focus on application of material forces a personal understanding of engineering. Heat Transfer and Fluid Mechanics were probably the first fully “engineering” courses I took.
Communication and notes were very clear and thought out. As a student it was clear the material was carefully picked to be challenging but still very much doable as a student. I was very grateful to have access to the recorded lectures and examples. I found the new version of the equation sheet to be very useful. The open note exams allowed me to show my strengths and understanding of the knowledge without having to rely on just my memorization.
This class could be improved through more thorough reviewing of homework, as often I was confused by the homework and simply did my best to get an answer. If class time was dedicated to going over homework after it was due, I could learn from my mistakes and gain a better understanding of the material for the tests.
I would spend some time in lecture explaining some of the more niche differences between the application of some of the methods and equations. (Like when you use certain correlations or heat exchanger types).
The tests are too rushed for time. These are problems that should be given thought and time, so tests that are rushed run contrary to the nature of the material.
Only thing I would like to see is more of the intermediate steps in calculations on some of the examples. It is not always clear to see where you went from a starting calculation to the final equation used. When working through the problems it does become easier to figure it out on my own but at the beginning of the chapter it can be difficult to know where to start.
He is an intelligent instructor who understands the nitty gritty of the course he is teaching us. He is very accommodating as it concerns giving an avenue for expression by students and has emotional intelligence on how to make us better students.
The collection of class materials (live lectures of this semester, lecture slides, prerecorded lectures) seemed to be a bit disconnected/non-linear. Some of this may just be a result of the various reference materials using drastically different organization of concepts and topics (as well as conflicting/inconsistent notation). Previous classes with the instructor may have glued or allowed these components to flow together more consistently (i.e., expected background knowledge level was difficult to determine).
Fall 2024:
Very good at helping student learn how to work together as engineers to solve problems.
Has a positive learning environment. As someone who is more shy and reserved, I’ve always felt comfortable asking questions in class.
Not only explains material but gives supplementary study materials for students to better understand.
His way to elaborate info for us to understand is great.
I have never had a class quite structured like Dr. Schlegel’s class. We spend more class time applying what we learned than just learning the content. Personally I found this method to be very effective in teaching me how to apply the concepts I learned to real world examples. This in general I would say is a difficult class, but by following Dr. Schlegel’s teaching method it allowed me to understand the content better than most other classes I have taken and allowed me to succeed in his class. This made a class I was nervous about very enjoyable and making me to take more classes taught by Dr. Schlegel.
Dr. Schlegel is one of the best teachers I have ever had. He is knowledgeable of the material he teaches and provides excellent problems and feedback for us students to learn from. I felt like the homework and challenge problems combined with lectures and feedback were enough for me to feel competent of the material and prepared for the exams.
Very clear when teaching, encouraging and welcomes students to have questions and go to him for extra help. Opens the module before the semester begins, and students have the ability to get a head start on studying on the material.
Group work allowed for better understanding on content, nice that it was in class so help was available.
Make available handouts of in–class example problems to follow along with the problem posed while working it out on the screen. Make all introductory explanatory lectures videos to watch independently to allow extra class time for example problem set–ups (where the tedious details of calculations are only shown occasionally where needed to highlight something that commonly trips up students) to allow for more clarification of problem–solving approach.
I would personally prefer more lecture style classes with fully worked out example problems, as I feel I learn better this way. The workload is definitely a lot for this course but is fairly manageable.
One of if not the best professor I have ever had.
Cares for student learning and student success, is available for questions when help is needed.
Very helpful preparing us for what we should expect for the semester and giving us adequate resources. The canvas page is amazing and very organized. All the assignments had a point and made sense as to why we were doing them.
Always willing to help students with what they’re struggling with. Makes sure to be available to help students.
Fantastic instructor, relevant and interesting lectures
This is just a suggestion for all of senior design, but I wish we did something like a poster instead of a presentation because then that could also be entered into events at S&T and ANS which makes me feel like I am getting more out of it. Could also be great for my engagment on campus which would reflect great on S&T social media and in turn boost our department rep
It would be nice to have consistent feedback, I feel that you would go to different professors and grad students for feedback and everybody had very different opinions (often complete opposite from each other) and it is difficult to understand what to do. I also think that an explanation should be given to the grad students of what we are instructed to do so that they are commenting on the correct items. For example for the presentations we got tons of comments on our dress not being professional enough however we all came in business casual as expected of us. Overall I think we can get more constructive comments if they understand the expectations and don’t critic us on something that isn’t a problem in the first place.
He is always available to help and answer questions whether that be after class or office hours. He is very knowledgeable in his subject area and provides good feedback. He always provides constructive feedback. He also creates a welcoming and comfortable environment to present in front of class and share ideas.
Schlegel is an excellent professor who genuinely cares about his students. He’s very engaged and provides a lot of material outside of lectures for students to use.
Organizational abilities, relevant lectures, incredibly knowledgeable
Dr. Schlegel does a good job of getting people’s attention. It is really hard to keep people off the phones and listening but he manages to do that.
Excellent lecturer. Great with engagement and out–of–class help.
Very helpful preparing us for what we should expect for the semester and giving us adequate resources. The canvas page is amazing and very organized. All the assignments had a point and made sense as to why we were doing them.
I don’t feel like I am learning anything in Nuclear System Design. I sometimes feel if I had taken other mechanical engineering department courses in heat transfer or fluids I would have learned more. I think that there is a limit to the group assignments and certainly a limit to the subjective grading. I didn’t ever really know why I got the grade I got in those classes, but I didn’t want to have to go through the hoops to ask. It is very difficult to say “Design a nuclear reactor in a few months” to some college kids and expect to get anything meaningful. The professor knows this so the grading doesn’t make any sense because no one has designed a nuclear reactor or has anything meaningful. I think that the presenting is good and the writing is good, but maybe scale the senior project down to something tangible. Even something as simple as a tiny component of a reactor or a project that can be tested in the research reactor. Make the first semester design an experiment in the research reactor, and the next semester gather the data. The research reactor is underused in classes anyway. The lectures are not particularly useful information and the grading/feedback is not great either. For a capstone class, I think this class feels more like a time suck/underwhelming, and fuel cycles and materials are the serious classes where I am learning how to be a nuclear engineer.
I understand that every project is different, but having some more benchmarking would be nice so we understand where we should be a little more. I still felt a little lost as to where I should be, even with the lectures and memos.
Spring 2025
Dr. Schlegel is highly knowledgeable and presents material clearly, effectively delivering course content and promptly responding any questions from students.
Dr. Schlegel is one of the best professors I have ever had. He is very knowledgeable about the subject matters, but also seems to genuinely care about student learning. He consistently takes time to explain things that are confusing until we have the understanding needed. The homeworks are helpful and the formatting promotes thought and learning.
Organized, Well–prepared, knowledgeable, effective communication, superb presentation skills.
The first half of the course felt very fast, but that might be because of my unfamiliarity with the subject. The homeworks are sometimes cumbersome and take longer than I would usually enjoy, but that also is probably a me issue.
Dr. Schlegel is very knowledgeable over the subject material and presents the material in a way that engages us with the course. The canvas page has more than enough resources for most chapters that are incredibly helpful. The class feels like a natural progression of the material, so each module leads into the next.
Some strengths include having every link, example problem, and instructional video you could hope for. The fact that he lives and breathes heat transfer makes it easier to pick his brain and try to understand what’s going on.
Dr. Schlegel is very knowledgeable on the topic of heat transfer. This is the second class I have had with him and it has been tough, but enjoyable. Not tough because of his teaching, tough content of course.
Focusing the class on completing problems is a strength.
Dr. Schlegel course’s structure is unlike any other professor I have had. I wish more professors followed his manner of teaching because I feel like I have really learned and understand the content compared to some courses I have taken. This is mainly due to two reasons, first by us solving challenge problems in class it gives me a chance to interact with the material before the homework in a more meaningful fashion. It helps me reinforce complex ideas almost from the beginning of the unit instead of closer to the end of the unit. Also I find working in a group to be beneficial, it gives me a chance to bounce ideas off of someone else and have a chance to hear other people explain topics I am unsure on instead of just the professor.
Gives an emphasis on the need for teamwork in the real world and translates that into the classroom.
Schlegel is knowledgeable on the subject of reactor heat transfer, and does an exceptional job at explaining/communicating the information. If a student still does not understand, there are additional resources on his Canvas page.
The biggest strengths of the class is the ability of the student to learn simply by performing the class works and homework.
Very understanding. Helps out in every way he can. Takes time for you to learn it and will try his hardest to help you when needed.
Provides a variety of resources and is effective at teaching the course’s content.
Structure/organization, provides copious examples, good at clarifying when asked directly.
The equation sheet sometimes lacks equations that feel necessary for the module. It is not a problem after encountering the equation for the first time, but I get confused sometimes searching for an equation I would expect to be on the equation sheet.
For lecture classes we have supplementary videos, and I find them quite useful but I wish they were set up in a way which told students what videos align with the next lecture class. I know the intention is to watch all of the videos at the beginning of the unit, but I find it more useful to watch the videos the day before lecture to start getting my mind to think about the concepts and then the next day having Dr. Schlegel go over the content.
Syllabi
Contact
Feel free to reach out to me at schlegelj@mst.edu or during my office hours for any questions or clarifications.