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The door's always open to standout teacher
December 10, 2002 -- Brenda McDonald
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| Max Deibert |
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When Montana State University chemical engineering professor Max Deibert says his door is always open, it literally is. For nearly 20 years his office has been open to a steady stream of students and former students looking for help on assignments or just stopping by to chat.
"Were you looking for some point of wisdom?" Deibert asks a student who glances in his doorway. The always genial Deibert, clad in blue jeans and a button down cotton shirt, is at home in his campus office, still furnished with the castoffs he brought with him when he came to MSU in 1984.
The 65-year old Deibert is first and foremost a teacher. Teaching is something he has been recognized for numerous times. He received the MSU 2002 President's Distinguished Teacher Award and has been named four times as a teacher mentor by students recognized for the Awards to Excellence program at MSU.
"I enjoy working with these healthy, vibrant young people," he said. "It's fun to see students develop an understanding of something." As Deibert readies for the day's lecture he greets his students with a smile and says to one who's been gone from class, "Missed you, where have you been?" and says "Happy Birthday" to another.
One of Deibert's former students, chemical engineering major Theresa DeWalt, appreciates the personal interest he takes in students.
"Last fall on the first test I bombed badly. He said, 'We'll get you back on track.' He had a lot of patience and was so encouraging and motivating. I hadn't experienced that in any other teacher before. He genuinely cares about students."
As a teacher, Deibert thinks a lot about how students learn, and the best way to present information. He believes that students learn better from others students so he has students in his smaller classes work in groups for homework assignments.
"If one student in a group has an idea that works and then has to explain the idea they communicate much more effectively and teach each other better."
For his large lecture-style classes he has a slightly different teaching style. "I use a lot of energy in presenting the lecture to keep the students engaged."
He'll often stop midway through the lecture and tell a joke, sometimes even one of his famous "peanut" or "elephant" jokes. "I use the break to bring those students back who might have mentally drifted off."
He tries to get students to think before they write. "My high school algebra teacher called it the 'lazy engineer approach,'" Deibert said. That's why he gives out "Pez" candy dispensers to high performers on exams.
"Two students can look at a question on a test and both get the right answer: one will take the disorganized approach and the other will look at it, think about it, and solve it in three lines. That's the one who gets the candy. I say to students, 'think a lot, write a little.'"
Deibert grew up in a small town in Michigan and earned his undergraduate degree from Cornell University. "I was out of my element at Cornell, I was just a farm boy." He was drawn to chemical engineering because he liked chemistry in high school and he liked building things.
After earning his degrees he was on the faculty at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and then became a consultant for many years. In 1984 he was thinking about making a career change and acted on the opportunity to teach at MSU.
Deibert continually thinks about how to keep his lectures fresh from year to year. "In the last eight years I have used four different textbooks in my lecture class. I start to hear echoes of myself if I keep using the same book. So when I change books, I rearrange notes, reread the material and it keeps the course fresh."
An avid hiker whose office is filled with pictures from hiking adventures, and a doting grandfather, Deibert says he isn't contemplating retirement.
"I like what I do. I like this life, why should I retire?"
Contact: Max Deibert (406) 994-5990
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