Huynh’s Flipped Classroom

When Assistant Professor Howard Huynh, a professional mammalogist and wildlife biologist from Canada, arrived in January, he hit the ground running. With six upper-level students enrolled in Biology 412: Mammalogy, he implemented a flipped classroom model—assigning readings outside of class and transforming classroom time into an interactive space for kinesthetic, inquiry-based learning.

Incorporating activities like comparative craniodental analysis, museum specimen preparation and a field trip to the Mace Brown Natural History Museum at the College of Charleston, Huynh exposed students to advanced mammalogy and museology studies. The class even expanded the department’s mammal collection by preparing museum-quality specimens of deer mice donated by the Peromyscus Stock Center at the University of South Carolina.

Perhaps most impressively, the students coauthored and submitted a scientific paper with Huynh to the Southeastern Naturalist, based on their discovery of historically significant museum specimens of tricolored bats (Perimyotis subflavus) in South Carolina. They presented their findings during Academic Excellence Day in April.

With guest speakers from the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources, trips to the Charleston Museum and rigorous research activities, Biology 412 offered cadets a real-world opportunity to contribute to science and conservation.