Open SUNY Online Teaching Ambassador 2017 – Corning: Sri Kamesh Narasimhan

Sri Kamesh Narasimhan, Ph.D., is Assistant Professor of Chemistry at Corning Community College. Kamesh received his Ph.D. in Chemistry from Syracuse University, Syracuse and a MSc. and BSc. in Chemistry from Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning, India. Kamesh teaches a variety of chemistry courses at both majors and non-majors level at Corning Community College. He also oversees the Chemical Technology Program at the college. He also serves as the College’s Assistant Chemical Hygiene Officer.

I am very passionate about teaching and as a chemist I feel that it is my duty to bring experiments to life by performing demonstrations in a face-to-face traditional classroom. However, it is challenging to do a visually appealing demonstration on an online platform. For this very reason, I initially spent time organizing my non-majors chemistry course as a hybrid, where the labs and some lectures are done at campus and the rest of the learning occurs online. During the past year, I have designed discovery-based labs and case studies, that will make the course completely online, challenge the students at home and keep them motivated. I feel that learning, even for instructors is and should be a constant process. Learning can happen not only in a face-to-face classroom but will also occur online, but only if we remain proactive and pay attention!