Ever since elementary school, I have known that I wanted to spend my life in the Physics field— I have always had a tremendous interest in the Physics sciences. I consider myself lucky for this; few people know, especially so early in life, exactly what field they want to enter into as a life career. This has aided me in the last few years. Teaching is the link that connects the cycle of how much we learned, how much we digested, how much we apply. It is the gate to transfer our accumulated experiences to the following generation.
Over the past twenty years, I have combined research and teaching experiences where I held different positions at National Research Centre (Cairo, Egypt), Georg-August-Universitat, Scientist (Gottingen, Germany), Ain Shams University (Cairo, Egypt), Westfalische Wilhelms University, Physical Chemistry Study and Research (Munster, Germany) and Al-Azhar University (Cairo, Egypt). I conducted interdisciplinary research projects and contributed to writing novel research proposals. I received my M.Sc. in 1993 and Ph.D. in 1998 in the field of Physics. During this time, I made significant contributions to solving critical problems in the alcoholic mixing by studying the dielectric behavior of some long chain alcohols in liquid and solid phases.
My research interests focused on, but were not limited to, improve the electrical as well as the mechanical properties of advanced polymer and organic materials which have industrial, biological and environmental importance.
Based on my experiences as a lecturer, simplifying the sciences to interest students is the main goal for a teaching professor. Converting the hard concepts to easy and usable ones is a very important need. This has to be achieved without neglecting the teaching of the basic rules. From this point, we can reflect that everyday life is based on Physics principles. Then we have a challenge for the students: to let them discover how their life connects with Physics, so that they accept Physics as an essential subject in their lives.
Using different tools that help students pay attention to their instructor is another important issue. How do we make the Physics attractive? Through the professor and the tools used like different computer programs, we can make Pysics enjoyable. I have considerable experience with using power point slides, animations, transparencies and videos to attract the students in my class. In addition, sorting the knowledge in high lighted points after each section is a very helpful idea; it helps in keeping the knowledge as long acting usable information (this is a comment from one of my students).
Allowing students to practice problem-solving inside the class-room is one of the most important missions of instructors for two reasons. The first is to make sure that the knowledge given to the students is sufficient to handle any question and the second is to, give the students self-confidence to deal with problems independently under the instructor's supervision. Actually, I applied this method at Ain Shams University, Girl Faculty (Cairo, Egypt), where I received a comment from a student saying “you changed a miserable Physics class into a fun class”.
Another important point is to encourage students to build up relationships with each other through group work. This can be achieved with the help of the instructor through team work activities. Also, writing assignments, exams and handouts are very important to monitor the activity and understanding of each student. Through them, we can address each student’s problem. Besides, rewards are very useful to attract the students studying hard; and hence reach their goals.
I would be happy to teach a wide variety of Physics courses, particularly Phys 211 (General Physics-Classical Mechanics), Phys 212 (General Physics-Electricity and Magnetism), Phys 221 (Introduction of Modern Physics), Phys 223 (Laboratory Format), Phys 300 (Modern Physics-Dynamics), Phys 405 (The Development of Modern Physical Science-Quantum Mechanics), Phys 410 (Electricity and Magnetism). Additionally, I could teach basic courses in materials sciences and nuclear Physics. I also have good background knowledge about recycling and biophysics, and could incorporate some basic information about these relevant topics in my classes.
In summary, I am highly committed to teach Physics and science in general, and I am looking forward to transferring my knowledge to the next generations.