The latest in a series of guest blog posts from students in the GCCUT program course GRAD 599. GRAD 599 is a self-directed learning experience, providing structure and context for professional development opportunities in teaching, such as workshops, seminars, webinars, symposia, and other relevant programming.

By Laurie Harrer

My name is Laurie Harrer, and I am a master’s student in the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife. I have taught one of the most math-heavy courses offered in my department’s undergraduate curriculum both on-campus and online. Most of my students do not have much experience with they types of mathematical models taught in my class. I need to both motivate my students to learn and make them comfortable enough to ask for help. I have found the fastest, easiest, and most natural way for me to accomplish this is through humor.

I have found many ways to incorporate humor into my teaching. I use wildlife pun memes in the announcements I write to my students via Canvas. I casually poke fun at myself to reassure students that I too had difficulty with some of the material they learn in my class. I also play some of my favorite YouTube videos in the lab: a series by zefrank1 called “True Facts” which give fun facts about various animal species. The more I make my students laugh, the more they relax and enjoy learning.

The more I make my students laugh, the more they relax and enjoy learning.

My anecdotal evidence that humor helps my students is not unusual. In Winter 2006, a paper by R. L. Garner was published in College Teaching titled, “Humor in Pedagogy: How Ha-Ha Can Lead to Aha!”. Garner found that students who learned a lesson that used funny stories, examples and metaphors retained more information than those who learned the same lesson without humor.

It is not necessary to have stand-up worthy material to introduce humor into a class. I have found some of my lamest puns get the most positive reception from my students. The act of trying to connect with students through humor seems to make a large difference. The internet abounds with funny memes and videos about almost any subject – incorporating some of those materials throughout a course could make a large difference in the students’ relationship with both the teacher and the subject.