Dr. Burian’s teaching philosophy, at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, seeks to inspire students by transparently and actively engaging them in their learning. He strives to establish a positive atmosphere by integrating enthusiastic presentations, thought-provoking demonstrations, physical models, challenging example problems, outside experts, team activities, active learning exercises, and project-based learning opportunities into a logically organized sequence of topics stimulating critical thinking and addressing the course learning outcomes. A key foundation to his approach is the establishment of strong interpersonal rapport with students. In his teaching, Dr Burian follows the American Society of Civil Engineers ExCEEd Teaching Model. Each lesson is structured to achieve a set of clearly defined learning objectives and frequent assessment is used to determine student learning and quantify performance. Dr. Burian gives students the freedom to learn by giving them freedom to ask questions, to share views, to judge ideas, to make mistakes, to learn from one another, to offer experiences and to be themselves.
Teaching and Courses
Undergraduate
- Hydrology
- Hydrotopia: Water Management in the West
- Sustainability Practicum
- Sustainable Urban Water Engineering
- Professional Practice and Design
Graduate
- Advanced GIS, Flood Modeling and Simulation
- Pipeline Hydraulic Analysis, Urban Hydrology Field Measurements
- Watershed Modeling