Dr. Tim Bowden
Name: Dr. Tim Bowden
Title: Assistant Professor of Aquaculture
Department: School of Food & Agriculture
How long have you been teaching? 14 years.
How long have you been at UMaine? 14 years
SEATLE Award for: “The Darth Beta Award”
Meet TIM
Courses you Teach
AVS/SMS211, SMS401, AVS411
Tell us a bit about you
What’s a surprising fact most people don’t know about you?
I have three beautiful shiba inu.
If your teaching (or research) had a theme song, what would it be?
The scientist, by flux pavilion
What’s something you would secretly love to teach, even if it has nothing to do with your field?
Chronobiology, it’s so cool.
Tell us a bit about your approach to teaching
How would you describe the changes to your course design or approaches to teaching?
I flipped my classroom, and I switched from all lecture to lecture and active learning. I also used to have my students do presentations, and now they create storymaps in ArcGIS online.
How would you describe the impact of these changes on the students in your classes?
My students engage in the topics more, and because they engage in the topics more, they learn about the topics more, and the iterative process has produced better retention.
As a result of this work, what has changed for you as an instructor and/or colleague in terms of your own teaching?
I am still pulling my experience apart and examining them. As a teacher I still feel like I have little time to reflect on my experience. I would say, however, that the Active Learning Classroom has provided the opportunity to interact with my students and work through more problems with them.
What would be a piece of advice you might give a new instructor at UMaine?
Go talk to CITL! They will help you more than any other single unit on campus. They will help you figure out what you’re supposed to be doing. (We pay him in high fives. But seriously, thanks for the love, Tim!)