Teaching Dossier

B. M. Frank, Ph.D., P.Eng.

Assistant Professor
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Faculty of Applied Science
Queen’s University

September 4, 2007

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Contents
1 Biographical background 3

2 Philosophy of teaching 3

3 Teaching Responsibilities 5
3.1 Course Instruction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
3.2 Innovative Course Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
3.3 Development of Teaching Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
3.4 Graduate supervision . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
3.5 Administrative and committee work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

4 Educational Leadership 8
4.1 Educational Development Faculty Associate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
4.2 Master’s in Engineering Education Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
4.3 Project based and Community Service Learning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
4.4 Teaching and Learning Forums and Workshops . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
4.5 Educational Outreach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

5 Teaching effectiveness 10
5.1 Feedback from Students . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
5.2 Teaching Awards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
5.3 Feedback from Colleagues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

6 Professional development 12
6.1 Teaching Scholarship . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
6.1.1 International and National Conferences (peer-reviewed) . . . . . . . 13
6.1.2 Regional conferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
6.1.3 Book contributions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
6.1.4 Queen’s University Presentations and articles . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
6.2 Professional Association Memberships . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

A Examples of Course Materials 15

B Student Feedback 16

C Peer and Administrator Feedback 17

D Engineering Education Publications 18

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1 Biographical background
I have been an assistant professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engi-
neering (ECE) at Queen’s University since September 2002. From 1999 to 2002 I was an
adjunct instructor at the Royal Military College of Canada, and concurrently a teaching
fellow at Queen’s University from September 2001 to April 2002. Over this time I have
instructed three different undergraduate courses, and one graduate course. In 2003-2004
I was awarded the Favourite Professor award for the fourth year Electrical Engineering
program, and in 1999 I was awarded 1999 Fourth year teaching assistant of the year in
the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department. From 2004-2006 I was appointed
an Educational Development Faculty Associate in the Instructional Development Centre,
now the Centre for Teaching and Learning (CTL).

2 Philosophy of teaching
My teaching experiences in both university and skill courses have demonstrated to me
that teaching is my passion. Not only do I derive a great deal of personal satisfaction in
teaching, but I am consistently amazed by how much I can learn from the act of teaching.
I value student learning, and so in my teaching I reflect on student feedback. I feel that
learning should be the focus, rather than teaching, and that as a teacher my role, in some
instances, is to create an environment where learning can take place.
In my discipline of electrical engineering, I try to help my students develop a combina-
tion of basic skills necessary for electrical engineers, and higher level critical thinking and
creative skills. Engineering students need to develop critical thinking skills, the ability
to find and evaluate information, and the ability to communicate and work with others,
both in their professional lives and as members of the general community. In terms of
Pratt’s teaching perspectives, I hold the apprenticeship and developmental perspectives.
Some students have an inherent desire to learn and understand the world around
them, and for this select group of learners abstract theory is sufficient to inspire inter-
est. However, most students learn much better if there is a real-world application to the
knowledge being presented. I aspire to offer real-world applications for the theory so that
students have an incentive to learn the material (aside from simply striving to pass the
course!). For example, I often present recent news articles in class that relate to course
material (e.g. the Mars Spirit Spirit and Odyssey communication systems, solar power
satellites, new mobile phone systems, and recent applied research). Student feedback
on surveys consistently includes positive responses to the applications I present in class.
This past year I implemented a One-Minute-Engineer session, adapted from a session
presented as the ASEE Annual General Conference in 2006, in my fourth year course.
This required all students, once per semester, to present a 60-second talk on any engineer-
ing topic of their choice. This helped to expose all students to a variety of engineering
topics, and helped the students feel more comfortable discussing in class. It also allows
the students to place the topic of the course (microwave and RF circuits) in the greater

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context of engineering and society.
I feel that it is critical to use engaging activities in formal class time. As engineering in-
structors, one of our roles is to introduce students to the technical language and accepted
practises of our discipline. Studies on retention rates generally find that students retain
very little of the content of lectures unless supplemented by other activities. In contrast,
group activities and design projects develop practical skills that are retained much longer.
Over the past three years I have developed my fourth year course to use a guided project
format, where about 20 minutes of each 90 minute class is devoted to an instructor-led dis-
cussion, using some lecture and some open ended questions, to overview the objectives
of the class. The rest of the class time is used for independent group work, where students
complete assignments that contribute to a major project due at the end of the semester.
Student surveys indicate overwhelming support for this technique over a straight lec-
ture format, and there are significant discernible benefits in terms of technical literacy
and basic skills in microwave circuit design. A description of this teaching method and
outcomes was published in the Proceedings of the ASEE Annual Conference, 2007.
I try to use technology as a learning tool. Engineering education has developed to a
point where technology plays a significant role in its practise. From an educator’s per-
spective there is often a need to find methods to allow students to visualize concepts that
may otherwise be abstract. During lectures I try to use several methods, including Java
tutorials, computer animations, computer simulations, and real-time measurements (e.g.
computer-based oscilloscope). This also allows me to teach to students with differing
learning styles. I was among the first instructors to use the Teaching Studio, an innova-
tive room designed for active learning in the Integrated Learning Centre (ILC). More than
half of the class time in my fourth year course is used for in-class assignments, the major-
ity of which require the use of industry-standard computer aided design tools that offer
the students a chance to see effects and design circuits that would be difficult or impossi-
ble to do by hand. I now use a wiki for course notes in my graduate course, and require
graduate students to contribute at least on topic per year. This helps to emphasize the
collaborative nature of learning, and expands the available resources for future students.
Finally, I believe in the importance of professional skills in engineering graduates. In-
dustry surveys and alumni experiences recount the importance of communications, de-
sign ability, team skills, and project management skills in successful engineers. For the
past two years I have coordinated a core first year course APSC-100, Practical Engineering
Modules. In this role, I develop open-ended design projects to introduce students to engi-
neering as a profession, and have introduced professional skills workshops focusing on
engineering design, information literacy, and technical communications.

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3 Teaching Responsibilities
3.1 Course Instruction
I have been teaching courses in the Faculty of Applied Science at Queen’s University for
the past six years. My teaching responsibilities are listed in Table 1. Previous to this, I
taught a fourth year elective microwave engineering course at the Royal Military College
of Canada from 2000-2003.

Table 1: Courses taught at Queen’s University

Course Course title Years Avg. # stu- Demographics

dents/yr
APSC-100 Practical Engineering 2005-2007 560 Core engineering
Modules course in Faculty of
Applied Science
ELEC-252A Electronics I 2002-2004 110 Second year core
course in Dept. of
ECE
ELEC-483 Wireless Technology 2001-2007 60 Fourth year elective
in Dept. of ECE
ELEC-49x Electrical and Com- 2002-2007 12 Fourth year capstone
puter Engineering course in Dept. of
Project ECE
ELEC-853 Silicon microwave 2004-2007 9 Graduate elective
and RF Circuits course in Dept. of
ECE

APSC-100 is a core first year course for students entering engineering at Queen’s Uni-
versity. It consists of two major modules: (1) an open-ended design project, and (2) a
measurement and analysis module. The course is intended to introduce students to engi-
neering issues, and help develop professional skills like design, communications, team-
work, information literacy, project management, and data analysis.
ELEC-252 is the students’ first exposure to electronic circuits. It has three lecture hours
per week, and one tutorial hour. This course is complemented by a separate laboratory
course, ELEC-290.
ELEC-483 is a final year course on wireless technology which includes sufficient detail
to allow students to design the high-speed portions of a basic wireless system, such as a
cell phone, or wireless LAN. It includes three lectures hours, taught in the Teaching Studio
in the Integrated Learning Centre. ELEC-483 includes a significant project component
that requires system design using a standard microwave software package.

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 ELEC-490/492 is the capstone design course for students in the Electrical Engineering
program. It requires students, working in groups of three or four, to successfully complete
a project that includes budgeting, scheduling, and design. Each group is supervised by
a faculty member, and each faculty usually supervises three or four groups. I generally
supervise 2-3 groups each year.
ELEC-853 (Silicon Microwave and RF Circuits) is a graduate course that I developed
in 2003-2004. It is a new course that covers recent development in my research area.
The course includes class discussion, a term-length project that requires the design and
simulation of a silicon-based integrated circuit, and a research seminar.
I have also been involved in marking the English Language Written Exam required for
all Applied Science students.

3.2 Innovative Course Development

Over the past three years I have completely revamped the delivery of ELEC-483 to make
use of a new teaching facility within the Faculty of Applied Science. The Integrated Learn-
ing Centre (ILC) in Beamish-Munro Hall includes a Teaching Studio, an experimental fa-
cility that provides the opportunity to integrate lecturing and application (in the form of
computer simulations or laboratory experiments). The Teaching Studio is an oval-shaped
room in which students may (a) face the instructor in the centre of the room, and a flat
screen monitor which is controlled by the instructor, or (b) turn around and face a ta-
ble with a computer and experimental equipment. This allows instructors to unify the
theoretical and practical aspects of a course, and allows a “just-in-time” teaching model.
This kind of facility has been demonstrated at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) and
Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI).
The course was designed to follow a guided project format, where class discussion
and in-class computer design work contribute to the completion of a final team design
project. The class was held in a teaching studio, and half of the three class hours per week
were used to allow students to work on computer simulations and design of microwave
circuits. Brief multiple choice quizzes at the start of most class sessions encouraged stu-
dents to complete class readings from the course wiki, allowing in-class time to be used
for higher-level discussion and teamwork. A final web-based course survey indicated
that over 85% of the students felt that the use of the studio, software, and class discussion
were valuable, and were preferable to lectures. Instructor and teaching assistants found
the students to have a greater grasp of the technical language, and a much better appre-
ciation of the practical aspects of circuit design. Student assessment of this teaching style
was extremely positive, and is presented in section 5.1. This coming year class sessions
will be structured to enable students to complete Kolb’s learning cycle each class, further
linking new knowledge and skills with prior experience.
In APSC-100, I have been developing relationships between the university and a range
of community and on-campus agencies, and introduced community service projects the
course. These projects expose students to real-world engineering problems, and the need

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to communicate with clients. Community service learning has been shown to have a pos-
itive effect on interpersonal development, ability to work well with others, leadership
and communication skills, applying learning to real world, academic learning, and uni-
versity relations in the community (J. Eyler et al., “At a Glance: What We Know About
the Effects of Service-Learning on College Students, Faculty, Institutions, and Commu-
nities, 1993-2000”, Learn and Serve America National Service Learning Clearinghouse,
2000). Anecdotally I have found these projects to be very motivating to students, and stu-
dents indicate that they are genuinely open-ended. To date we have formed projects with
Habitat for Humanity, St. Mary’s Rehabilitation Hospital, Hotel Dieu Hospital, Limestone
District School Board, Thousand Islands Elementary School, Kingston Environmental Ad-
visory Board, the Pump House Steam Museum, Living Energy Lab, and the Integrated
Learning Centre.
I have also initiated collaboration with other experts in the university to help incom-
ing students begin to develop professional skills. With Prof. David Strong, holder of the
NSERC Design Chair at Queen’s, I developed an interactive session to introduce design
which required the students to develop an adaptive device. I have worked with the En-
gineering and Science Library to develop workshops on information literacy for all first
year engineering students, which lays the foundation for further development in upper
years. I have also worked with the Engineering Communications group in the Faculty
of Applied Science to offer an opportunity for APSC-100 teams of four to meet with a
writing tutor to improve their communication skills. This initiative is built upon in upper
year technical writing programs developed by the Engineering Communications group.
In 2006-2007 I began to develop projects that integrate first year students with upper
year students, offering an opportunity for development of both groups. In 2006-2007 I
worked with the instructor of a third-year multidisciplinary course to offer a combined
project, and we will be offering another combined project this year. I am also going to su-
pervise an integrated product development project between first year students and fourth
year electrical engineering students. These projects provide an opportunity for first year
students to learn project management skills, as well as technical skills, from upper year
students, and helps upper year students learn how to communicate with people of di-
verse technical backgrounds.
Some of these innovations have been published in international and national confer-
ences on engineering education, and at a variety of teaching-related sessions at Queen’s
University. Section 6.1 shows the publications related to my teaching.

3.3 Development of Teaching Materials

Appendix A contains examples of some of my course resources and grading rubrics.

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3.4 Graduate supervision
Over the past five years I have supervised or co-supervised seven graduate students.
Three of the students have been NSERC PGS recipients. I have also supervised three
NSERC undergraduate scholarship recipients. Two of my M.Sc. students have graduated
and gone on to the Ph.D. program at the University of Toronto. I have also supervised
three NSERC undergraduate summer research asummer undergraduate research assis-
tants.
My graduate students have been active in attending and presenting at conferences,
and in journal publications. In the past five years, they have co-authored 15 journal and
conference publications.
I meet with the graduate students weekly throughout most of the school year to pro-
vide guidance and ensure continuous progress. We also meet regularly with other mi-
crowave researchers at Queen’s University and the Royal Military College of Canada to
present ideas and exchange information on collaborative projects.

3.5 Administrative and committee work

In addition to my teaching responsibilities, I was appointed to the Dept. of ECE curricu-
lum committee for 2003-2004 and 2004-2005. I was also on the subcommittees looking
into improvements for the signals and systems stream, and the electronics stream, and
in 2005 I chaired a sub-committee to look into improvements for the final year project
courses (ELEC-49x) taken by all students in the department. I have been one of three year
advisers for the electrical engineering program.
As described further below, I was also a member of the search committee for the
university-wide Coordinator of Community Service Learning, and on the organizing
committee for a new Master’s in Engineering Education program. I also was part of two
of the Instructional Learning Center (ILC) Working Groups
In the summer of 2007 I co-supervised, with Prof. Stan Simmons of the ECE Depart-
ment, an initiative to develop a tutorial and work flow for printed circuit board (PCB)
design to be used by undergraduate students in the department.

4 Educational Leadership
4.1 Educational Development Faculty Associate
In January 2004 I was appointed a Educational Development Faculty Associate (EDFA)
within the Instructional Development Centre. The responsibilities of this position in-
cluded:

• Working with colleagues from across the campus to encourage the improvement of
learning and teaching at Queen’s

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 • Designing and developing innovative programs that would lead to improved learn-
ing and teaching;

• Initiating projects aimed at improving teaching and learning

• Acting as a liaison on teaching issues with Faculties and Departments in the area of
subject expertise

• Peer consultation

The position also came with $6000/year in funding to be used for teaching develop-
ment.

4.2 Master’s in Engineering Education Program

I was invited to be a member on the organizing committee for a new Queen’s-University
program granting the degree Masters of Science in Engineering Education. This initia-
tive has passed the Faculty Board, and will be presented to Queen’s University Senate in
the 2007/2008 academic year. In the proposed program, I will be one of five core faculty
members, responsible for supervising graduate research projects in engineering educa-
tion.

4.3 Project based and Community Service Learning

Based on my work in developing community service learning in APSC-100, I was asked
to be a member of the search committee for a university-wide Coordinator of Commu-
nity Service Learning. The position was filled in July 2007. In 2006 I was consulted, in
my role as APSC-100 coordinator, by engineering professors at the University of Victo-
ria as part of their initiative to revise their first year engineering program. This course
was subsequently highlighted in their survey paper on engineering design courses across
Canada.

4.4 Teaching and Learning Forums and Workshops

I have been involved as a presenter in several educational forums at Queen’s University,
including the Cross Faculty Teaching Forum (2006, 2007), and as an invited panelist in
the ILC Lunch Series (2007). For the past three years I have facilitated sessions at the
Professional Development Day for Teaching Assistants.

4.5 Educational Outreach

I have been involved as a volunteer presenter at Sweet’s Corners Public School in Lyn-
dhurst and Thousand Islands Elementary School in Lansdowne. I have done science

9
presentations on chemistry and electricity and magnetism for grade 6 and 7 students. I
was also involved in the “World In Motion” project sponsored by the Society of Automotive
Engineers being implemented at Sweet’s Corners School and Thousand Islands Elemen-
tary School. This program is intended to introduce students to the field of engineering by
building small gliders and powered vehicles with the assistance of an engineer.
Over the past two years, I have initiated science-outreach community service projects
into APSC-100. Over fifty first year engineering students have been involved in designing
apparatus to help elementary students learn science and technology concepts. These pilot
projects have been featured three times in the Gananoque Reporter, which covers the
school involved.

5 Teaching effectiveness
5.1 Feedback from Students
Table 2 below summarizes the QUEST or USAT responses to “Instructor’s effectiveness”
for my undergraduate courses. As can be seen from the bolded text, my scores in the most
recent year of teaching ELEC-483 and ELEC-252 are considerably above average. The re-
sponse for ELEC-483 was above average the first year I taught it, but dropped below aver-
age for some of the years after beginning to develop innovative teaching approaches. The
implementation of course projects, and studio-style teaching techniques required some
significant adjustment for me, and led to some student dissatisfaction. However, this
past year my USAT results were significantly above average.
Similarly, the student feedback for ELEC-252 improved almost every year I taught it
as I become more familiar with the material, and in the final year was considerably above
average.
I also use formative evaluation midway through the course to re-evaluate the success
of my teaching strategies. Further evidence of my teaching effectiveness is available in
Appendix B, which contains comments from unsolicited emails from two of my students.
In ELEC-483 for the past three years I have asked students to complete a web-based
survey which asks students how they think the studio style/guided project style format
contributed to their learning. Several of the questions asked them to compare use of
studio-style instruction and guided projects to more traditional lecture-based instruction.
The survey includes the following question:
Do you feel that holding the course in the Teaching Studio, and using the studio format, helped
or hindered your learning compared to the traditional lecture format?
A chart of the responses is shown in Figure 1. The response was extremely positive
in the first year, and improved every year as I learned what ideas worked and what did
not. Appendix D includes a recently published ASEE conference paper entitled “Guided
Projects for Active Learning in an Upper Year ECE Course” which analyzes the student
responses in more detail.

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Table 2: QUEST and USAT responses to “Instructor’s Effectiveness”. Bold denotes the
most recent year teaching the course.

Course Year Score Dept. mean

ELEC-483 2006-2007 4.5 3.8
ELEC-483 2005-2006 3.6 3.9
ELEC-483 2004-2005 3.9 3.9
ELEC-483 2003-2004 3.4 3.7
ELEC-483 2002-2003 3.4 3.7
ELEC-483 2001-2002 3.9 3.7
ELEC-252 2004-2005 4.5 3.8
ELEC-252 2003-2004 4.2 3.9
ELEC-252 2003-2004 4.2 3.9
ELEC-252 2002-2003 3.5 3.7
ELEC-252 2001-2002 4.0 3.8

Figure 1: Student responses to “Do you feel that holding the course in the Teaching Stu-
dio, and using the studio format, helped or hindered your learning compared to the tra-
ditional lecture format?”.

There is no university-wide evaluation form for graduate courses, but the Depart-
ment of Electrical and Computer Engineering has graduate course evaluations to provide
feedback to instructors. In the four academic years from 2003-2007 the form includes the

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question “Overall, do you consider that the lecturer, as a teacher is:”, and offers the op-
tions excellent, very good, good, marginal, and unsatisfactory. Over these years, I received
excellent on 14 evaluations, very good on 6, and good on one.

5.2 Teaching Awards

In 1999-2000 I was the departmental 4th year teaching assistant of the year. In 2003-2004,
I was awarded the Favourite Professor Award for the fourth year Electrical Engineering
program.

5.3 Feedback from Colleagues

Appendix C contains letters written by colleagues regarding my teaching and educational
innovation. The letters are from:

• Prof. Tom Harris, former Dean of the Faculty of Applied Science.

• Prof. James Mason, Associate Dean (Program Development) in the Faculty of Ap-
plied Science.

• Prof. David Strong, NSERC Design Chair in the Faculty of Applied Science.

• Prof. Joy Mighty, Director of the Centre for Teaching and Learning (CTL)

• Ms. Sharon Murphy, Head Librarian, Science and Engineering Library

6 Professional development
Upon my appointment at Queen’s University I enrolled in Teaching Matters, a year-long
program run by the Instructional Development Centre (IDC) for recently-appointed fac-
ulty members in the Faculty of Applied Science. Among other things, as part of this pro-
gram I attended seminars organized by IDC staff, and invited the acting director of the
IDC, Dr. Susan Wilcox, to my lectures several times to obtain feedback on my teaching
strategies. I completed this program a year after my appointment. I also attended several
of the sessions that are part of Focus on Foundations program offered by the CTL. I reg-
ularly attend education-related events at Queen’s University, including the CTL Lunch
Series and Cross Faculty Teaching Forums.
I also attend educational conferences to see the current state of the teaching art and
learn of innovative strategies that I can to incorporate into my teaching. I have attended
the following conferences related to teaching and learning in higher education:

• Canadian Design Engineering Network (CDEN) and the Canadian Congress on En-
gineering Education (CCEE) (2007)

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 • American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference (2006, 2007)

• Engineering Projects in Community Service (EPICS) Annual Conference (2005).

• Eastern Ontario Symposium on Educational Technology (2005)

• Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education (STLHE) Conference (2004)

This past year I completed a 12-week correspondence program entitled Introduction

to Teaching in Higher Education: Transforming Teaching, Learning and Self, offered by the
Institute for the Advancement of Teaching in Higher Education. It focused on topics
such as knowing our students, promoting academic integrity, assessment, curriculum
development, active learning, and technology for learning.

6.1 Teaching Scholarship

I have presented at a range of educational venues, including international and national
conference on engineering education, and in a variety of sessions at Queen’s University.
Recently I presented a session on using a guided project format in ELEC-483 at the ASEE
Annual Conference, the largest engineering education conference in the world. A listing
of my conference publications related to engineering education is show below. Bolded
names refer to graduate students I am supervising.

6.1.1 International and National Conferences (peer-reviewed)

• B. Frank, “Making the switch: Reflections on integrating community service learn-
ing into a first year design project course”, Canadian Design Engineering Network
(CDEN)/Canadian Congress on Engineering Education (CCEE) 2007 Conference,
July 22-24, 2007

• B. Frank, J. Carr, “Guided Projects for Active Learning in an Upper Year ECE Course”,
2007 American Society of Engineering Education Annual Conference, Honolulu,
Hawaii, June 2007

• B. Frank, J. Carr, “Evolution of a Microwave Engineering Course to ’Studio’ Format

using Computer Simulations”, 2006 International Conference on Interactive Com-
puter Aided Learning, September 2006, Villach, Austria

6.1.2 Regional conferences

• B. Frank, “Studio-Style Teaching Using Computer Simulation”, Eastern Ontario Sym-
posium on Educational Technology, Trent University, May 2005

• B. Frank, “Computer Simulations for Studio-Style Classes” (invited presentation),

Ontario University Computing Conference, June 2005

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6.1.3 Book contributions
• B. Frank, ”Studio-style Instruction for Science, Mathematics and Engineering”. A
case study in D. Stockley & J. Mighty (editors) Teaching More Students: Labs and Prac-
ticals. Centre for Teaching and Learning, Queens University, Kingston, Ontario,
2007, pp. 59-66.

6.1.4 Queen’s University Presentations and articles

• B. Frank, “Teaching and Learning in Science and Engineering”, Professional Develop-
ment Day for Teaching Assistants, Queen’s University, September 2007

• B. Frank, “Leading Labs in Science and Applied Science”, Professional Development

Day for Teaching Assistants, Queen’s University, September 2007, 2006, 2005

• B. Frank, “Inquiry by Design: Information Literacy and Communications through

Community Service Learning”, Cross Faculty Teaching Forum, Queen’s University,
May 2007

• B. Frank, “Learning Electronics Actively!”, Department of Electrical and Computer

Engineering, Queen’s University, November 6, 2006,
http://www.ece.queensu.ca/undergraduate/news/elec483.html

• B. Frank, “Queen’s Engineering Reaches Out”, Faculty of Applied Science Newslet-

ter, July 2006

• B. Frank, “Community Service Projects in First Year Engineering”, Cross Faculty

Teaching Forum, Queen’s University, May 2006

• B. Frank, “Delivery, Content, and Culture”, Queen’s Gazette, May 5, 2005

• B. Frank, “Leading Labs and Tutorials in Science and Applied Science”, Professional
Development Day for Teaching Assistants, Queen’s University, September 2004

6.2 Professional Association Memberships

• Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers: member of Education, Microwave, and
Solid-State Circuits Societies

• American Association for Engineering Education: member

• Association of Professional Engineers of Ontario: member

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A Examples of Course Materials
Figure 2 shows an example of a page on the ELEC-483 wiki, which provides notes and
hyperlinks to relevant material.

Figure 2: Screenshot of wiki used as resources in ELEC-483.

15
B Student Feedback
The following are some comments on course evaluation forms over the past six years.

• Brian is always on time, well organized, concerned about our learning; he teaches to
the class (not the board), he presents us with material that challenges us and makes
us think. The class has extremely good flow and provokes an interest in the subject
matter. Brian shows a positive attitude and presents a good humour in class. It has
been a pleasure to be in his class. Brian is by far the most interesting teacher who
motivates us to go to class. Brian is the best teacher I’ve had!

• Class format is excellent. Webpage format (wiki) also seems an excellent choice as a
collection of lecture materials.

• Prof Frank really tries his best and it shows . . .

• Excellent course! Lecture style, how the professor handled the questions were ex-
cellent especially.

• the instructor presented current research which applied concepts learnt in class to
everyday application. the instructor seemed enthusiastic about the subject being
presented (always a good thing when instructors seem like they enjoy teaching)

• The instructor was very good. He was always prepared, tried to show us how it
could be applied in real life, and really knew what he was talking about.

The following is an unsolicited email from a student in my fourth year elective course.

Email

I was wondering if you were planning on attending the Iron Ring Ceremony on Sun-
day. I have a huge amount of respect for you based on my interactions with you as well as
your interactions with my peers and if you are planning on being present at the ceremony
on Sunday, I would be honoured if you could be the one to ring me. Please let me know
if this is possible.

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C Peer and Administrator Feedback
Attached are five letters from peers and administrators regarding my teaching and edu-
cational innovation:

• Prof. Tom Harris, former Dean of the Faculty of Applied Science.

• Prof. James Mason, Associate Dean (Program Development) in the Faculty of Ap-
plied Science.

• Prof. David Strong, NSERC Design Chair in the Faculty of Applied Science.

• Prof. Joy Mighty, Director of the Centre for Teaching and Learning (CTL)

• Ms. Sharon Murphy, Head Librarian, Science and Engineering Library

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D Engineering Education Publications
The following are my recent conference publications and articles on engineering educa-
tion. Three articles about the science outreach program in APSC-100, which appeared in
the Gananoque Reporter, are also provided.

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