Joseph Sabir is a biology professor at Anoka Ramsey and primarily teaches at the Cambridge Campus. Joseph has been teaching seminars and courses over the course of ten years though he has been teaching at Anoka Ramsey for the past three years. He received his education at the University of Minnesota where he studied cell biology and genetics; he also received a master’s degree in microbiology there. Though he did spend some time at the Karolinska institute in Sweden. Before teaching Joseph also spend some time working for a research institute.

When asked what made him want to teach, Joseph explained that he greatly values making a connection with his students and that by making this connection he is able to make sure his students are understanding the content, not just memorizing it. This statement of understanding over just memorization is what Joseph says is critical when it comes to being successful in his courses, and that by understanding the content a student builds a foundation necessary to moving forward in biology, but it also opens the world to students even if a student isn’t going into a biology related field.

Biology can seem like a very intimidating subject to most students and when asked what advice he’d give to students who do feel intimidated, Joseph says that students already innately understand biology because it’s all around them. He also encourages students to be present, not just physically, but to actively engage in the discussions throughout the course. Biology is the science of life, and everyone is composed of and surrounded by life every minute of every day; this is why joseph believes that we are already experts in biology. He uses this train of thought as the reason as to why students shouldn’t feel intimidated by taking a STEM course, such as biology.