As part of my graduate training, I have gotten the opportunity to teach a variety of undergraduate and graduate level courses (see below). My goal, in whatever course I am teaching, is to first engage students in their own discoveries, and then help them gain the knowledge and tools they need to explore questions that are interesting and motivating to them. In the process, I find that they tend to learn a lot along the way!
As a teaching assistant at the University of Connecticut, one of my favorite experiences has been working with Dr. Susan Herrick and Dr. Tanisha Williams to design and implement the first online, introductory ecology course at UConn. My role in this venture was to create and implement content for the "lab" portion of the course. For many of the courses I am involved with, we collaborate with the staff working with UConn's phenomenal teaching greenhouses as part of the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Department. Our greenhouse-focused classes are always a hit with students. Check out the living collections via their website, or better yet, come visit us in Storrs, CT!!! |
As part of our introductory ecology course, students explore diversity in leaf form and function in the EEB Teaching Greenhouses (aka: Rainforest!). Top: smallest leaf in the collections (Wolfia spp.); Bottom: largest leaf in the collection (Amorphothallus titanum).
Me for scale, and I am >6ft tall!
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