Chancellor John Wiley can trace his passion for science to his childhood, when his interest in chemistry compelled him to order radioactive iodine from a mail-order catalog. He was 12 years old.
\I suppose I got interested because I liked to blow things up,"" he said.
Wiley turned this passion into a career that included working as a physicist, a UW-Madison engineering professor and dean of the Graduate School. He discussed his science background with 60 faculty members and graduate students Wednesday at the University Club as a guest speaker of the Delta Program, which focuses on improving science and math instruction.
Wiley acknowledged that standard methods of teaching sciences could be improved. When he started teaching at Madison in 1975, he was given no mentoring, preparation or advice.
""All they told me was, 'Here's your office, here's the course you're teaching. Good luck,'"" he said. Ultimately, through trial and error, he learned to make the material personal and link the content to the interests of his students.
Wiley said he always gave his students a practical understanding of why they were learning the chosen subjects.
""I always deviated from the textbook,"" he said. ""The boring stuff is usually up front and the interesting, practical stuff is at the end. I always started at the end.""
The Delta Program seeks to capture experiences like these by giving math and science professors a forum to share their most effective teaching techniques.
Herb Wang, professor of geophysics, said his favorite practice is to give his students a historical and biographical look at the scientists they study.
As one student told him, ""It helps when I realize that these scientists were students just like [we are].""
The Delta Program started at Madison this year as a pilot program to improve math and science teaching and will expand to Michigan State and Penn State next year. Aaron Brower, professor in the School of Social Work and Integrated Liberal Studies, is the faculty director of Delta. He hopes the program will help good professors become even better.
""We want to remind them, especially at this time of the year, that teaching is fun,"" Brower said.
The Delta Program is a resource for professors and also for graduate students who are interested in teaching math and science. For more information visit http://www.delta.wisc.edu.
