Manoa’s Meritorious Teachers

John Yanagida
Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Management

John Yanagida is a professor in the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Management. As a student, Yanagida grasped material best by seeing concepts applied to the real world and he has incorporated this into his teaching. He teaches quantitative methods, economic theory and natural resource management. The key to applied learning in his approach is the application of problem solving to business, economic and natural resource problems.

Given the negative sentiment towards mathematics, it is a challenging task to make learning enjoyable. Yanagida uses a game show atmosphere and has math challenge questions between different sections of the classroom as a fun way to have students work problems on their own or seek assistance from neighboring students.

Yanagida’s integration of lecture, laboratory and Web-based instruction is a creative and effective approach to teaching. In his college he served as a multi-cultural scholar mentor, helping students gain hands-on experience in the field of natural resources and environmental management.