Kate Hyde, PhD, will be the recipient of the Outstanding Teacher Award during the UNMC Faculty Senate annual meeting on April 15. The award recognizes faculty who exemplify excellence as a director of learning, advisor of students, facilitator of human relations and/or promoter of the improvement of educational quality at UNMC.
- Name: Kate Hyde, PhD
- Titles at UNMC: Professor, UNMC Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology; associate director for shared resources, Fred and Pamela Buffett Cancer Center
- Joined UNMC: 2013
- Hometown: Waterville, Maine
What are the greatest rewards of teaching?
One of my greatest rewards from teaching graduate students is watching them develop new skills and become an independent scientist.
Describe a moment in your career when you realized you had picked the right occupation.
One of my first years at UNMC, I was teaching in a biochemistry course for first-year graduate students. There was a student that was unprepared for the first exam and only answered about one-third of the questions. She later came to talk with me, questioning whether she belonged in graduate school and if it would even be possible to pass the course given her score on the first exam. After a long discussion, I convinced her not to give up, but to change how she approached the course material and prepared for exams. With each exam, her grade steadily improved, and by the end of the semester, she had completely turned things around. I was so proud of her. This interaction early on in my career convinced me that I was in the right place.
What are the biggest challenges you face as a teacher?
One of my biggest challenges is time. When working with students, it can be so tempting to just tell them the answer so I can move on to the next thing. But that isn’t how most students learn. I try to lead students to solve problems on their own so that they really understand the answer and are better prepared when they encounter a similar situation in the future. But this approach takes time, which is always in short supply.
How do you know when you’ve been successful as a teacher?
Every so often, I’ll see a student use a technique or strategy I taught them or explain something to one of their peers using the same analogy or example I used when explaining that concept to them. That is one way I know I’ve made an impact.