In the classroom, I help students learn how, not what, to think. We live in an age where mountains of information are available. The trick is knowing what to do with that information — how to navigate what is known and, more important, how to deal with what is uncertain.
I also run a tissue engineering research lab. Undergraduates, graduate students and postdoctoral associates (those who have already received a doctorate) work together in teams to develop new biomedical technologies. It is essential young researchers learn how to identify a problem, develop strategies to address it, build teams and assess how well they meet their goals, and overcome failures along the way.
Instead of learning to match patterns, young researchers must learn how to illuminate new spaces and create entirely new connections. And because we work at the edge of what is known, our studies often take us in directions both surprising and entirely different from how we set off.