Winner of the President's Award for Excellent Performance and Achievement in Teaching 2000/01

Senior Lecturer in the Department of Electrical Engineering, joined the University in July 1998. Dr. Snider is honoured for his outstanding performance and achievements in Teaching. Dr. Snider was the winner of the Best Teacher Award 2000 of the Faculty of Engineering. His overall score from his department's teaching evaluation system (including student feedback, peer evaluation and teaching portfolio) was the highest in the department. He is a dedicated and enthusiastic teacher who inspires his students to learn by thinking, stressing concepts rather than memorization of equations. He introduced a novel teaching method - PISER (Peer Instruction and Student Electronic Response) - which tackled and overcame students' weaknesses in applying critical thinking to problem solving. This method has attracted the interest of departments from three other Faculties, and he has been invited to give seminars to demonstrate its use. Dr. Snider has also given invited presentations at the Educational Development Centre workshops on this subject, as well as at universities in Hong Kong, South Africa, Brazil and Canada. He is an active member of his departmental teaching and learning committee and has contributed significantly to teaching and learning strategies.