Dr. Thomas Mennella
I have been an instructor in higher education for over ten years. Starting as a non-tenure track lecturer at the University of Massachusetts – Amherst, I taught a Principles of Biology survey course that I designed to give psychology majors taking neuroscience courses a better core foundation in biological principles. As an Assistant Professor at Delaware State University (DSU), a small public university, I experimented with Problem-Based Learning (PBL) and was an early-adopter of the iClicker student response system. Now an Associate Professor at Bay Path University, a private liberal arts institution in western Massachusetts, I primarily teaches Genetics and Cell and Molecular Biology. I was an early-adopter of the flipped classroom format at Bay Path and I’m intimately involved in Bay Path’s iPad initiative. At Bay Path University, I have given professional development presentations on the flipped classroom format, on the logistics of running a flipped classroom, and on the use of Tegrity and Screencast-O-Matic as platforms for lecture capture. In addition, I have presented the flipped classroom philosophy to prospective students and their parents at Bay Path recruitment events. I have given numerous scientific presentations, and more recently, I’ve become an outspoken proponent of flipped learning, presenting at NERCOMP2014, NERCOMP2015 and the national Teaching Professor Conference in 2015.