March Faculty Spotlight – Christine Hand

Christine Hand / Professor in the School of Science & Engineering Technology

After completing her PhD in Chemistry at the University of Waterloo and post-doctoral work with the National Research Council, Christine Hand became a Field Chemistry Specialist for the Canadian branch of the one of the world’s leading analytical instrument manufacturers. She travelled all over Ontario and Western Canada helping scientists solve analytical chemistry challenges using chromatography, and training them on new technologies. After her adventures, Christine decided to look for a position closer to home where she could focus on teaching and training – the parts of her job she was most passionate about. The first day Christine started searching, she found a faculty posting at Durham College. She applied and “despite delivering my teaching demo from my laptop screen in a blackout with everyone using their cell phones as flashlights to take notes, I was hired. Seven years later, I now teach Analytical Instrumentation and Chromatography courses across six programs in Science and Engineering Technology and am the Coordinator for the Biotechnology – Advanced and Pharmaceutical Sciences programs”.

Analytical instruments are tools to solve problems and discover information. In her previous role Christine has seen these tools do incredible things: “we can detect one billionth of a gram per litre (ng/L) concentrations, determine the correct dosage of immunosuppressants for a transplant patient, and quantitate 80 pesticide residues simultaneously to ensure our orange juice is safe to drink.” Christine connects the theory and practical details of this technique to the jobs that students will secure and questions they will need to answer: Is the drinking water safe? Can we release this product for sale? Is the manufacturing process proceeding? Is this pharmaceutical safe for human consumption?

During lecture Christine uses analogies to connect concepts to everyday life and tries to inject each lecture with a little humour. She integrates active learning through board work and in class questions or worksheets, and uses technology tools such as Kahoot, Padlet, and crossword generators for brainstorming, and formative assessments.

Christine finds sharing some details about her own life and challenges in school create a safe space for sharing. She encourages questions in and after class as well as working in small groups for formative assessments. Christine states that “because my courses are core knowledge, not program specific I make a point of demonstrating how the techniques apply to the students’ individual programs. I name drop other professors from their programs in examples and discuss what the students are doing in their other courses to connect to ‘their’ world”.

In her online synchronous lectures, she leverages the various functionalities in Zoom. Christine used the screen annotation feature in Zoom heavily to emphasize points and keep everyone focused on the same aspects of the slides – the student feedback was very positive. to promote active learning, Christine states, “we used various features of Kahoot and Padlet, as well as breakout rooms for discussion. I found students needed more supplemental information when remote, compared to when in lecture therefore, I expanded my use of DC Connect to provide embedded videos, such as those from the Journal of Virtual Education, and other supplemental resources such as simulations from Phet (https://phet.colorado.edu/, physics, chemistry, math, earth science, biology). To support the students with math, I would make screen capture videos where I worked out math problems with narration using One Note and my iPad and post them through DC Connect.” Christine promotes interaction with students using chat to answer and ask questions. She was surprised at how the students used the chat – they would ask and answer questions and support each other in the chat during the lecture. She made a point of keeping an eye on the chat function during the lecture to respond to questions in real time, which students appreciated. Beyond the occasional joke, they rarely used it to be off topic.

What advice would you offer other professors?

Be positive, honest, and consistently professional. When things go wrong, I find students to be very understanding so long as you are honest with them and in return, they will be honest back with you when things go wrong for them. Being consistent in how you treat everyone and how you apply rules and policies is not always easy, but students appreciate it. I am proud when students say that I am tough, but fair