Marcial Gonzalez

Mechanical Engineering

Since joining Purdue in 2014, Marcial Gonzalez, associate professor of mechanical engineering has worked with undergraduate students in mentoring, advising, and counseling activities across campus, and in courses and independent research studies. 
 
This includes his development of hands-on laboratory for ME 323 Mechanics of Materials in spring of 2018, using laboratory space at the Purdue Polytechnic Institute, which matches technical rigor with modern teaching and learning pedagogy and is now officially part of the Mechanical Engineering curriculum.  
 
Gonzalez is the winner of the Robert W. Fox Outstanding Instructor Award that is presented annually to a junior faculty member in the School of Mechanical Engineering who has demonstrated excellence in the classroom. He has also received six Seeds of Success. 
 
He works to empower underrepresented minority community college students who demonstrate the desire and ability to pursue graduate studies in STEM fields. Students who helped nominate him for the 2021 Murphy award recognized Gonzalez for his commitment to their learning with comments like, “Professor Gonzalez is clearly passionate about the topics covered in this class…He emphasized the importance of concepts we learned in class, specifically their applications to real-world calculations.” 

How has your teaching evolved over the last five years? 

With five years of (previous) teaching experience in a technical high school — in fact, one very similar to Purdue Polytechnic High School — and some experience in advanced graduate-level courses, I was able to develop a teaching style that aims to seamlessly blend the fundamental principles of solid mechanics with professional engineering practice. In addition, by connecting with things students care about and aspire to, I realized that the learning process is more memorable and exciting for the students. 

What changes to your teaching during the pandemic did you take with you going forward?

I continued to teach in person during the COVID-19 pandemic, but my lectures were also live-streamed, recorded, and shared online. Half of my students watched all or some of my lectures online. I dreaded that my online students’ lack of active in-class participation would diminish their engagement and thus compromise their learning experience.  
I was wrong. In fact, I was wrong for the wrong reasons. Several online students acknowledged that seeing other students ask questions during the lecture gave them a sense of belonging, normalized their efforts towards understanding, and most of their questions were answered “on the fly.”  

Going forward, I take with me that in-class participation is not only one of the most important catalysts for student engagement and success but also something that can be experienced by proxy or collectively. Therefore, one should record lectures with an audience, as opposed to just the instructor. 

What suggestions do you have to Purdue instructors who want to improve their teaching and/or their students’ learning?

Students feed on the instructor’s passion and energy, respond to authenticity, and relate to relevance. Of course, not every student will share our passion. Still, focusing on these three aspects will improve students’ learning and, hopefully, inspire them to find their own.  

What motivates you to do your best work in a student-centered learning environment?

I strive to form engineers who can seamlessly blend fundamental principles with professional engineering practice and ethics. I always enjoyed seeing how ideas and concepts click in my student’s heads. I work hard to recreate these moments in my classroom. 

The Charles B. Murphy Outstanding Undergraduate Teaching Award is Purdue West Lafayette’s highest undergraduate teaching honor and awarded annually in the spring semester. Each College selects and advances its own nominee the previous fall as a model in excellent undergraduate education and includes input from its students. For other nominee interviews, see the Insights webpage. Further details on the award and selection procedure and university awardees are available on the Office of the Provost website.