Course taught:
Natural Resources Sampling
Data visualization in the era of big ecological data
Silviculture
I have taught many subjects and have found that my enthusiasm for the natural world can be contagious. I strongly believe in the benefits of an active hands on education. I promote active learning in the classroom and in the lab through engaging students in discussions and the practice of science. I have experience teaching many subjects including ecology, environmental science, botany, plant physiology, fungi, basic biology labs, and my specialty forest ecology and management. I have taught graduate and undergraduate courses, as well as made guest appearances in elementary and high school classes. All of which I enjoyed and I look forward to exciting more students with my passion for science.
Through my experiences as a fellow with the Teagle Collegium on Inquiry in Action at Indiana University, I discovered how to approach my teaching as I do my research. I also discovered the scholarship of teaching and learning and the current thought on how people learn. In the classroom, I set learning destinations and assess students’ progress towards those destinations. I lead classes through the worlds of plants, fungi, vertebrates, invertebrates, and the broader environment. We explore the interactions that shape the world and ignite the fires of curiosity in my students. As an educator I am comfortable in the classroom, lab or in the field, but I am most comfortable in the forest. I lead undergraduate and graduate students down paths suitable for their needs towards goals that will advance their careers. I approach topics from multiple angles to address the differing learning styles that exist among students. I believe in the idea that college education is not meant to simply relate facts and skills, but rather to provide them with the basic framework for the life-long adventure of learning. I believe strongly in frequent low-value quantitative assessment of learning to allow for course alteration while we are still on the path and to allow for reflective improvement of future classes.
An example of how reflection has improved the classes I teach is the plant systematics laboratory that I taught for several years. The lab provides a great opportunity for students to interact with the organisms that studetns hear about in lecture. Another lab instructor and I redesigned the portion of the course that was intended to teach students how to construct and interpret phylogenetic trees. We noted that this section of the course was consistently poorly received by the students and dreaded by the instructors because it tried to pack the whole process into one three hour lab. Through a series of changes in how the material was presented in lab, additional pre-lab homework and modification of in-class discussions, we improved students’ abilities to both construct phylogenetic trees and interpret phylogenetic relationships of taxa within and between trees. Using past class assessments as a comparison, we are able to quantitatively demonstrate student learning gains due to our teaching intervention. This work is published and you can obtain it here: CBE-Life Sciences Education.
Natural Resources Sampling
Data visualization in the era of big ecological data
Silviculture
I have taught many subjects and have found that my enthusiasm for the natural world can be contagious. I strongly believe in the benefits of an active hands on education. I promote active learning in the classroom and in the lab through engaging students in discussions and the practice of science. I have experience teaching many subjects including ecology, environmental science, botany, plant physiology, fungi, basic biology labs, and my specialty forest ecology and management. I have taught graduate and undergraduate courses, as well as made guest appearances in elementary and high school classes. All of which I enjoyed and I look forward to exciting more students with my passion for science.
Through my experiences as a fellow with the Teagle Collegium on Inquiry in Action at Indiana University, I discovered how to approach my teaching as I do my research. I also discovered the scholarship of teaching and learning and the current thought on how people learn. In the classroom, I set learning destinations and assess students’ progress towards those destinations. I lead classes through the worlds of plants, fungi, vertebrates, invertebrates, and the broader environment. We explore the interactions that shape the world and ignite the fires of curiosity in my students. As an educator I am comfortable in the classroom, lab or in the field, but I am most comfortable in the forest. I lead undergraduate and graduate students down paths suitable for their needs towards goals that will advance their careers. I approach topics from multiple angles to address the differing learning styles that exist among students. I believe in the idea that college education is not meant to simply relate facts and skills, but rather to provide them with the basic framework for the life-long adventure of learning. I believe strongly in frequent low-value quantitative assessment of learning to allow for course alteration while we are still on the path and to allow for reflective improvement of future classes.
An example of how reflection has improved the classes I teach is the plant systematics laboratory that I taught for several years. The lab provides a great opportunity for students to interact with the organisms that studetns hear about in lecture. Another lab instructor and I redesigned the portion of the course that was intended to teach students how to construct and interpret phylogenetic trees. We noted that this section of the course was consistently poorly received by the students and dreaded by the instructors because it tried to pack the whole process into one three hour lab. Through a series of changes in how the material was presented in lab, additional pre-lab homework and modification of in-class discussions, we improved students’ abilities to both construct phylogenetic trees and interpret phylogenetic relationships of taxa within and between trees. Using past class assessments as a comparison, we are able to quantitatively demonstrate student learning gains due to our teaching intervention. This work is published and you can obtain it here: CBE-Life Sciences Education.