Song Shu

As an associate professor in Geographic Information Science(GIS) and Remote Sensing (RS), my teaching aims to enable students with the capability of actively thinking, rigorously reasoning, smartly approaching, and carefully solving real-world issues from a geospatial perspective, therefore, to make them career-ready upon their graduation for either pursuing a further graduate degree or seeking a job in the geospatial domain. To that end, my teaching philosophy consists of three core principles. First is to maximize students’ learning by adapting the lecture and lab materials and instructional strategy according to students’ background and prior knowledge. Second, I am a strong believer in the “hands-on” approach to teach technical courses. My experience shows that well-designed lab exercises and assignments are an important component for students to thoroughly understand abstract concepts, to gain hands-on experience with analytical methods and software packages, and to build necessary skills and abilities to handle concrete real-world problems. Third, from my learning experience as a student and teaching experience as an instructor, I understand that it is essential for an instructor to be accessible, responsive, friendly, and encouraging for maximizing students’ learning. I have developed and taught diverse courses, including Introduction to GIS, GIS Analysis and Modelling, Remote Sensing of Environment, Satellite, Drones, and Spatial Analysis, GIS Seminar, and Geographic Information System I.