Teaching Statement
I strive to meet the intellectual and emotional needs of students in order to promote their learning, development of classroom and life skills, and engagement outside of class. I do this mainly by trying to achieve four goals: increasing learning, creating a positive classroom experience, supporting students beyond the classroom, and improving my own teaching methods.
My primary goal is to increase learning and engagement in the classroom. This includes improving material comprehension and retention and helping students to develop their critical thinking skills. In addition to being prepared, organized, and flexible with in-class presentations, I find that pre-emptively addressing student misconceptions does the most to help student comprehension. I also recommend study strategies specific to the course, provide alternative strategies for a diversity of learning types, and encourage students to share study tips and form study groups. Frequently when presenting in class, I utilize the push/pull approach. This lets me expand on course topics and makes the students think critically and contextualize the material. Showing them broader perspectives can increase their interest in the subject material and demonstrates greater depth for students who do want to explore course topics further. I also frequently expand on the course’s broader utility and how discussion topics are related to other courses, disciplines, and societal issues. Empowering students to make these kinds of connections increases the chance that they will uncover a method of approaching the material that works best for them.
My second teaching goal as is to create a positive classroom experience. This ultimately enables my primary goal of increasing learning and engagement. Additionally, so much of a student’s experience in college is tied to in-classroom and in-person experiences; therefore, positive classroom experiences create a platform for more academic and experiential benefits. I strive to create a safe and open learning environment for all students by setting expectations for mutual respect at the beginning of the course and reinforcing this as the semester progresses. Oftentimes this takes the form of responding to student remarks or asking leading questions to get students to voice or consider diverse perspectives. This approach leads to an increase in engagement from students from underrepresented and/or minority backgrounds and positive benefits to critical thinking and discussion in students from all groups in the class. By creating a positive classroom experience, students are more comfortable and retain course material better, learn more from their classmates, and are more likely to pursue the subject beyond the classroom.
After focusing on learning and the in-class experience, I also aim to support student learning beyond scheduled class time. I consistently offer to set up other times to meet if students cannot make scheduled office hours, and numerous students have taken advantage of this option. During and after class, I try to get to know my students as individuals and I encourage their participation in a variety of extra activities that reinforce class themes, including field trips, local nature activities, volunteer and work opportunities, internships, and undergraduate research. These activities can increase engagement, retention, and learning in addition to providing personal and professional development for students. After a course is over, I encourage students to stay in touch and, among those that do, I have connected former students to some of my colleagues in their expressed areas of interest, provided resources for job and graduate school searches, and offered advice on school and life.
Lastly, I am constantly working to improve my own teaching, course design, and pedagogy. Whether it is by considering and critiquing my own in-class methods to looking into new technology (e.g. using mobile platforms for lab classes and field trips) to writing and updating course materials each time a class is taught, I make the effort to continue to improve my teaching effectiveness. In this way, I hope to make a positive impact on the academic careers and lives of my students.
Teaching Experience
- Certificate in College Teaching Program Duke University (2019-Present)
- Teaching Assistant Department of Biology, Duke University (2022)
- Teaching Associate/Assistant Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Department of Integrative Biology and Physiology, UCLA (2012-16)
Teaching Awards
- Schechtman Teaching Award for Outstanding Merit in Instruction and Service Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, UCLA (2015)
Courses as a Teaching Assistant
Graduate Courses
- Advanced Experimental Statistics *Head TA
Field Courses
- Experimental Marine Invertebrate Biology
- Field Marine Ecology
- Biology of Marine Tetrapods
Upper Level Courses
- Animal Environmental Physiology *Head TA
- Biology of Vertebrates *Head TA
- Biology of Invertebrates *Head TA
Introductory Level Courses
- Introduction to Ecology & Behavior
- Genetics & Evolution
- Living Ocean (General Education course for non-majors)
Guest Lectures
- Answering Biological Questions Using Circular Data and Analysis in R, developed and taught with Dr. Kate Thomas, for Biological Data Analysis (Bio 304) at Duke University, with Dr. Tom Mitchell-Olds (Spring 2018)
- Future Directions in the Whole Body Eye of Sea Urchins, for Marine Invertebrate Zoology at Friday Harbor Laboratories, University of Washington, with Drs. Gustav Paulay and Peter Funch (Summer 2017)