Teaching

Philosophy

My experiences as a student and as a teacher have developed my philosophy that teaching should extend beyond a simple transfer of information from instructor to student.  Teaching should challenge a student to critically assess topics and should engage them in the subject of the course as more than just class material.  I have experienced and led a variety of teaching methods and find a mixture of discussion based classes, hands-on activities, and open-ended assignments to be the best method for achieving this end.  Discussions encourage students to explain and expand upon ideas to assess topics from a variety of perspectives.  Hands-on activities take students outside the classroom and encourage them to actively engage with concepts and processes.  And open-ended projects and writing assignments allow students the opportunity to synthesize information and demonstrate knowledge they have gained.

Teaching Assistant

During my first two semesters of graduate school (Fall 2012-Sring 2013), I worked as a teaching assistant for sections of Introductory Biology and Principle of Ecology. Introductory Biology had large class sizes composed of students with variable levels of science experience. This course was valuable for preparing me to work with a diverse body of students.  To accommodate the breadth of material and size of the course, labs consisted of prescribed activities with expected results. This approach has clear benefits for providing consistency across sections, but does little to build an understanding of true science.

Ecology had smaller class sizes comprised of upper-level Biology majors. Activities took students into the field to collect data on fiddler crab burrow distributions, sample plant diversity, and design experiments about pollination. I designed a new lab activity in which students assumed the role of a plant, competing with other students for resources of variable scarcity. Unprompted, students strategized how to stand and what resources to prioritize to compete most effectively. They commented on how the distribution of resources predicted their chances for success. From these observations, it was easy to help students make connections with how similar processes function in natural systems. Students were more interested and engaged with these hands-on activities and took away a stronger appreciation of science. 

Informal Teaching and Outreach

For four years (2013-2016), I was the graduate assistant on an NSF-funded STEM education program known as ETEAMS (Elementary Teachers Engaged in Authentic Math and Science).  Through this program, I managed 4-8th grade pre- and in-service teachers as they engaged in authentic science experiences, including mentoring ~40 teachers on my own research.  In addition, I helped teachers design and implement hands-on science and math activities based on these experiences at our partner schools.  For more information on this and other outreach experiences, visit my outreach page.