Andy Montgomery
Teaching Philosophy
I am blessed to have two grandfathers who have taught me how to embrace life.
Living on a beautiful lake, one grandfather taught me that life is like fishing - the more lines
you have in the water, the more adventures you will enjoy. My other grandfather, a
professor of biology, showed me when I was seven years old that biology was the study of
life in its ever-changing form. From this, I have learned that humans have the capacity to
greatly expand their minds and their life experiences. Not everyone takes full advantage of
life’s opportunities, but my professor-grandfather instilled in me a deep love and
appreciation for all aspects of existence and a thirst for understanding how all of life’s
components are intertwined. His teaching sparked my fascination of biology, and my
interest has continued to grow through my undergraduate career and my time at the
University of Georgia.
As I have learned more about biology, I have seen how harnessing this
understanding can be used to serve people, both in the classroom and in the world around
us. Therefore, in my teaching, I strive to intertwine the real world with biology, and show
my students how something completely out of their field can actually be completely
relevant to their lives. To be successful in doing this, I plan to have students bring up
examples of how biology/science has affected their field of interest and create a discussion
of why a basic understanding of biology is imperative for a more well-rounded society.
The best way for students to see how biology is relevant is for them to do biology.
To do this, I plan to have my students isolate, purify, and characterize a novel
bacteriophage sampled from the environment. This will show them essential applied math,
many basic microbiology techniques and even expose them to more complex
bioinformatics tools. This will at minimum allow my students to see how some basic math
(e.g. dilution calculations) can be used outside of a formulated math problem, and how
these values can be used to further your understanding of what the numbers represent.
Further than that, I hope to implant a deep interest in the field by exposing my students to
the mystery that is science.
I believe it is my goal as a teacher of biology to create an all-around better
understanding of biology, but more importantly, as an educator, to instill within my
students a passion for learning. As time goes on, and the field of biology continues to grow,
there will be a greater separation between the field and lay-people, and the responsibility
to bridge that gap will fall on academia. Therefore, it is crucial that teachers are equipped
to accurately depict biology in a way that does not dilute the truth, but is also not so
advanced that the students are completely lost. I plan to battle this issue, by building a
substantial background in my courses and then slowly, but efficiently building upon this
foundation. That way the class will understand the material that has been covered rather
than having covered a lot of information without absorbing any knowledge.
Since becoming an educator, I have realized the importance of combining
understanding, originality, diligence, and discipline for success in the field of biology.
Childhood passions are often sharply curbed by adulthood, but mine have only been
empowered, and this is something that I hope I can impress upon in my students through a
thorough, positive and unique educational experience.