Machinist says he sometimes watches television shows such as "Saturday Night Live" or "The Simpsons," or movies such as Lethal Weapon 4 with his son.

"Eventually I will find a way to work [the movie] into the lecture," Machinist says.

From Uganda to Cambridge

According to Beth C. Conlin, program coordinator for Massachusetts Campus Compact, a coalition of colleges that are committed to service-learning, professors who are involved in their communities are better teachers.

Community service experience "grounds the material in reality and results in a more engaged class," she says.

Several Harvard professors, such as Wells Professor of Political Economy Jerry R. Green, are involved in community activities outside of Harvard.

Green says volunteering on the finance committee of a local hospital has made him more aware of how institutions respond to government incentives.

Changes in Medicare recently reduced the government's contribution to teaching hospitals, causing the hospital Green advises to decrease the amount of medical residents it hires, he says.

"The interesting thing for the economist is to see how powerful a seemingly small incentive can be," he adds.

Even if professors' experiences in the community are not as applicable to their academic research as Green's, they may still influence their teaching.

Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology William M. Gelbart says his job as a soccer referee makes him a better instructor to Harvard students.

"Learning to cope with all the bizzareness of coaches and parents...is great crowd-control training for being a lecturer in a larger course," he says.

Likewise, Professor of Psychology Marc D. Hauser recalls an experience he had when he was working in Uganda that affected his teaching. Hauser, whose wife was pregnant at the time, says one of the native field assistants asked him if his child would be black if she gave birth in Africa.

Hauser says the incident taught him that "people's understandings of the biology of race are not that sophisticated."

As a result of the experience, he says he tries not to make assumptions about what his students know.