Teaching
Teaching Philosophy
Experiential Learning
My teaching experiences have taught me that knowledge creation fundamentally occurs within the mind of each student and must be, therefore, internally motivated. Hands-on labs where students directly explore key biological processes, direct their own learning, and unite analytical and communication toolkits develop both conceptual knowledge and practical academic skills.
Dynamic Approaches
Students come into the classroom with a diverse set of previous experiences, learning modes, and goals. Therefore, in my classroom I present students with a variety of ways to engage with the material, from traditional lectures to active learning modules on core concepts to self-directed interaction with museum specimens in lab. Critically, I am focused on students understanding how to approach a problem scientifically and assessing why something is true.
Societal Context
The classroom is the primary contact undergraduates will have with STEM topics and careers. The public perception of scientists is heavily biased, so directly incorporating the shared humanity of scientists is fundamental to both demystifying biology and growing interest among a more diverse community. While learning and understanding key facts are major goals of my teaching, it is more important that students understand why this is relevant to their own lives and how these skills are useful in broader society, especially for those students who will go into other fields.
Pragmatic Skills
My experience has impressed upon me that students learn best when it is clear how they can use their knowledge. Where possible, students should use the actual techniques behind the discoveries covered in lecture, assess how scientific advances are made, and understand how to apply these skills. I design courses so students leave not only with an appreciation of biology, but with a framework for how to approach problems, test hypotheses, and use evidence to support their conclusions.
Teaching Experience
The Fishy Aspects of the Human Body
The fascinating origins of our own body are revealed in the fossil record, with key features of human anatomy appearing in our early “fishy” and reptilian” ancestors. I co-developed this course with the Harvard Curator of Vertebrate Paleontology around readings from popular science texts and in-class discussions of vertebrate evolution, ecological transitions, and developmental genetics. I designed hands-on activities in which students of this general education seminar were able to explore the evolutionary events, genetic mechanisms, and biological principles which explain key aspects of our anatomy and physiology. As a single example, juxtaposing stations on the evolution of mammalian hearing with the embryonic formation of the ear allowed students to discover parallels and discuss underlying molecular processes.
Vertebrate Evolution
As a teaching fellow, I co-created a new version of this advanced undergraduate course with the vertebrate paleontology curator that focused on exciting specimen-based labs. I curated the teaching collections to reflect both the new course structure and advances in the field. I designed hands-on labs in which students directly explored vertebrate evolution through fossils at key timepoints and discussed the relationships of major lineages, the anatomical and ecological evolution leading up to modern biota, and the molecular and cellular origins of biological structure. This approach allowed students to explore either individually or in small groups and learn the core evolutionary concepts though self directed learning. Further, I organized a week-long field trip to Petrified Forest National Park which gave students an opportunity to engage directly in paleontology. Students applied in-class knowledge to identify fossils they discovered and discuss the implications of faunal turnover in the park.
Understanding Darwinism
For this general education course on the historical, scientific, and broader societal context of Darwin’s theories, I ran discussions and activities for primarily non-science majors as part of a team teaching environment. Students learned key scientific principles and how applying them led to our modern understanding of the biological organization observable in nature today. I encouraged students to use a format for their final project that allowed them to utilize existing skills, rather than a typical essay, and enable them to better contextualize their knowledge. Projects included boardgames and a comic book, all of which exhibited their synthetic understanding of evolutionary theory.
Age of Dinosaurs
As a teaching assistant for multiple lab sections in large introductory evolutionary biology courses each semester, I was tasked with helping students grasp core concepts in biology including major patterns of organismal diversity, evolutionary trends, and ecological selection. Ensuring all students could interpret the phylogenetic trees presented during lecture was the largest challenge that I faced. I implemented an active learning module on ”tree-thinking” where students performed an activity in which they built an intuitive sense of the historical nature of phylogenetic trees – building the conceptual framework before learning key terms.
Biology of Mammals
For this organismal biology course, I worked with a small team to create new lab activities which explored the natural history and evolution of mammals. I worked closely with collections staff to select taxidermy specimens, skeletons, and skins which best demonstrated key distinguishing features of major mammalian lineages and their ecological diversity. Students were tasked with applying phylogenetic tools and integrating from the molecular to macroevolutionary scales to assess major patterns in mammalian diversity and how this reveals fundamental biological principles.
In the field & under the scope
It is equally important to engage students about the scientific processes as the important knowledge this endeavor has produced. Students often have misconceptions about how science is done or do not see the value to their lives. To give students first-hand experience with paleontological research, I organized a spring-break fieldtrip to petrified forest national park. Aspects of laboratory research can also be implemented during course sections and allow student assessment and course feedback to be based on useful skills. Direct engagement with the practical considerations of research helps to demystify the scientific process.