President’s Award for Excellence in Teaching:

Full-time Faculty

JON A. SPERLING

Associate Professor of Biology

A “quintessential natural historian,” your connection with the natural worlds is “total: physical, intellectual, and spiritual.” The breadth of your knowledge is evident in the range of courses you teach: Mycology, Wetlands, Ornithology, Lower Plants, Higher Plants, North American Flora and Fauna, General Biology, and Food Microbiology. You integrate recent articles, classical texts, and your own writing into the classroom, but your lectures are only the starting point. Your students write: “Dr. Sperling’s unique approach to teaching stems from his love of fieldwork and a desire to introduce his students to a hands-on method of learning.” “On field trips he climbs up or down any precipice, walks into lakes and rivers, and chases after anything moving slower than he does.” “He hits message home with specimens from Atlantic City, Cape May, Cunningham Park, Alley Pond Lake, and even his backyard here in Queens.” Perhaps the highest praise comes from a recent student: “I never realized how anybody could make algae so interesting and relevant to our everyday lives.” For inspiring generations of Queens College students who have gone on to teach their own students and for bringing “biology science to life right here in Queens,” it gives me great pleasure to present you with the 2006 President’s Award for Excellence in Teaching.