Clarkson University molecular bioscience and biotechnology Ph.D. student Darren Sipes of Odessa, N.Y., has been awarded the Outstanding Teaching Award for Graduate Students for 2020.
Sipes was nominated for the award by Clinical Associate Professor of Physical Therapy Vicki L. LaFay, Professor of Physical Therapy Emeritus Leslie Russek and Associate Professor of Biology Shantanu Sur. Nominees for the award needed to demonstrate graduate TA excellence in their career-wide student evaluations.
In their nominations, the faculty said that under the mentorship of Sur and Russek, Sipes stepped up to take on a unique and challenging teaching role when he taught the gross anatomy lab for Foundational Sciences in Physical Therapy 505.
The lab is challenging to teach because it requires integration of basic science with clinical application. Sipes also served as teaching assistant for the Anatomy and Physiology I and II labs, which are considered more challenging than many other lab courses.
A sampling of students’ comments also indicated the high quality of Sipes’ teaching:
“Darren is amazing as a professor. He puts a lot of time and effort into our learning. I’d love to see him back for future semesters.”
“Mr. Sipes makes learning fun and intuitive. He is able to explain concepts in anatomy lab in a manner that makes it easy to remember and to apply in other areas of PT 505.”
“Very knowledgeable and ALWAYS willing to help the students and provide great ways to study and learn the anatomy… Amazing, Amazing, Amazing professor.”
Sipes is the co-author of articles in Cytotechnology, Handbook of Single Cell Technologies and Self-assembling Biomaterials.
He received his bachelor of science degree in biology from Clarkson in 2013.
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