My decision to pursue a teaching career was profoundly influenced by the late professor Jonathan Wright of Michigan State University. Professor Wright was able to lecture with enthusiasm on subjects as dry as the number of needles in a bunch on different pines or the average acorn size for different oaks, and able to do so with the utmost clarity and organization. Watching him, I also learned the importance of teaching to the individual rather than to "the class," and of treating each student with respect.

Of the four courses I teach regularly, two present particular challenges. My course Forestry Computer Programs and Applications has led me to become aware of some basic principles in teaching computer science. First, lecture time is less valuable than laboratory time. Second, students learn most effectively by making mistakes, identifying their mistakes, and correcting them. Third, an instructor must be ready to jump in and help a student when frustration builds to a dangerous level. Fourth, assignments throughout the semester should include both simple and complex exercises, the former to reinforce basic concepts and the latter to elicit creativity. Fifth, every i must be dotted and every t crossed before an assignment is distributed. Letting the class find errors for you sets a poor example when teaching a skill in which the location of a comma can be critical. Finally, one should keep one's hands off the students' keyboards. Taking over a keyboard conveys a lack of confidence in the student. Even more important than these basic principles, however, is the creation of an environment in which students help teach their classmates.

Teaching forest economics presents a very different set of problems and opportunities. While student motivation is rarely lacking in a course on computers, the majority of forestry students have a biological orientation and think that economics is boring and irrelevant. I felt the same way as an undergraduate, and understanding foresters' distaste for economics has been useful in teaching it to them. You must quickly convince them of its relevance, and this is fairly easy to do if your lectures refer to environmental and forestry issues that are of great concern to students today.

By far the hardest thing to do in an economics class is to simultaneously convey both the strengths and limitations of an economic model, and induce the students to critically evaluate its merits on its own. Promoting critical thinking requires a careful balancing act, but it's what really matters most in the long run—not whether the students remember the formulas. More than anything else, I try to convey to students that I care about their success beyond my classroom. It's a lot of work, but I honestly enjoy it.

I'm honored to have been given this award, but I recognize that I still have a long way to go. I've never taught a lecture or laboratory yet when some improvement hasn't occurred to me by the end of the session, and my student evaluations never fail to identify something I could do better. There is no room for complacency in teaching, and that's one of the things I love about it.