“Professor Larry Lee is patient, charismatic, and creates great engagement in his class. He’s very polite, respectful, and forgiving when it comes to mistakes. He does a good job of explaining things in a way which is easily digestible. His interactive classes ensure learning is never boring. He has a natural ability to connect with students, making it easy to ask questions without hesitation. His humor and enthusiasm create a motivating learning environment. He’s well-organized, attentive, and deeply committed to his students’ success. His passion is undeniable, and his ability to inspire students is palpable. Professor Lee ignites a love for learning. He is very well liked by the students for this and a multitude of other reasons.”
Larry, a Teacher Recognition award recipient in 2025, has been a faculty member in the Chemistry and Geoscience department at Camosun since 2006. “I started teaching in 1999 at the University of Victoria (UVic) as a sessional instructor. From the time I was a graduate student, I knew that teaching was one of my passions because I enjoyed teaching labs and interacting with the students. At UVic, I started with the third year course Transitional Chemistry, then they offered me the opportunity to teach first year general chemistry and also a second year organic chemistry class. It was a first year general and the second year organic class. After a few terms at UVic, I taught at Selkirk College for one year then moved to Douglas College to teach two summer classes. Then I returned to UVic to be their co-op coordinator. Finally, when an opportunity came up at Camosun in 2006, I jumped at the chance to teach smaller classes so I could interact more with students.” And now, at Camosun, Larry teaches general chemistry, the college preparatory chemistry, first year transferable chemistry, and second year organic chemistry. Larry doesn’t just enjoy interacting with students when it comes to teaching, and he told me “I love everything about teaching. I love it when I’m making a difference in helping students succeed. And getting together with students and talking about chemistry and seeing that they’re interested in it is a huge delight.”
I wondered what a typical Larry class might look like. “While the classroom is traditional lecturing style, I’m trying to move towards integrating more student engagement. It’s challenging with our curriculum because it has to be university transferable, and because we have so many concepts to teach, the teaching tends to be more instructor writing on the board and students writing down what the instructor writes which is unfortunate. But that’s why I’m learning learn more about how to use tools in Adobe Creative Cloud to animate molecules and show how molecules interact to give students a better perspective on what I’m talking about. Then instead of writing things on the board, I can play an animation of what I’m talking about. So I’m trying to make classes more interesting and less passive.”
I wondered how Larry makes chemistry relevant for students. “There are so many real-life applications for chemistry. Everyone wants to know what different chemicals do, so in the lab we have hands on learning instead of simply memorizing concepts. In lab, they have to pay attention to detail and scientifically observe what’s happening. I think students enjoy gaining a clearer perspective of why we do what we do and relating that hands-on to the lecture material. And of course, we also talk about the real life applications of chemistry, for example, how atoms exchanging electrons (electrochemistry) applies to making batteries.”
Larry had mentioned using Adobe Creative Cloud tools to create interactive learning objects, and I was wondering if the pivot to online during COVID might have played a part in that move. “I was already preparing myself to create videos and online lectures before COVID because sometimes students miss a class and need to catch up but are afraid to ask other people for notes. During the pandemic I began to use Adobe Creative Cloud, since it’s supported by ITS, so I could present animations online and discuss them with students. I could have used animations and videos on YouTube, but I like to create my own instead of relying on someone else’s material and I want to continue with that because it’s more engaging, and students really enjoy it.”
Another initiative Larry has been engaged with is using Open Textbooks. “We learned from our associate dean what students could do if they did not have to buy textbooks. Even online versions of textbooks, which are cheaper than print textbooks, could represent a week of meals for a student. So, I explored OpenStax textbooks.” Larry found textbooks he could us on OpenStax but learned that it would work best if he moved the textbook information into D2L pages. “If you look at my D2L pages, I’ve been adding not just the information from the textbook, but also my own animations and drawings from Creative Commons to clarify points. When I ask students what they think of these notes, they say they are really helpful, so I want to continue building them (I’ve already created notes for three courses) although it is a lot of work.”
In addition to being able to contextualize open material into your D2L courses, one advantage to using open textbooks is the ability to edit them. “It’s easy to embed pictures, videos, even PhET simulations which are interactive science simulations (chemistry, biology, physics) into the open textbook content. So, everything is there in one place for the students.” Of course, there is one disadvantage to having everything in D2L as Larry notes. “As I built these pages out, I found that more students are missing the in person lectures. To encourage attendance, I tell students that class time will be used to discuss the material further and to go through more examples.” But for students who are sick and have to miss class, having the online notes available is a huge advantage.
Creating animations and integrating open textbooks have been keeping things fresh in Larry’s classes, and I was wondering what else Larry did to engage students. “We can always find ways to be more engaging and to find ways of supporting students to learn better and succeed. One thing I ask my students to do, for bonus points, is to let him know if they find mistakes in his D2L pages, for example grammar errors or points of confusion. It’s perfect because they become my second set of eyes and are developing transferable skills, like paying attention to details, which will be useful as they move forward into their careers.”
I wondered if Larry had some memories from his many years of teaching to share. “The best thing about teaching is learning from the students. Recently a student in class pointed out an easier way to solve a problem that I hadn’t considered. So, when I put the solution on D2L, I credited the student for mentioning this in class. When students shout out something I hadn’t thought about, that’s awesome. I also really like when students contact me at the end of the course to let me know I made a difference to them and when students worry about passing the class but end up with an A+.”
My final question for Larry was about what advice he might have for a new faculty member. “One thing I’m still working at getting to know other faculty members because there are so many smart people out there. You learn so much from interacting with others, learning from their experiences and expertise, sharing back with them, and I wish I could have coffee with everybody.”