Inclusive, student-led, experiential education in ecology.
Students learn best when they can relate to the content being taught, have autonomy to make choices about their learning experience, and feel a sense of belonging and community in the classroom.
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Iām current the lead developer of educational modules to teach undergraduate students about principles of ecological forecasting through the Macrosystems EDDIE program. For more information, see my Current Work page (Ecological Forecasting Educational Modules).
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I served as instructor of record for Freshwater Ecology (BIOL 4004; enrollment of 32 students) at Virginia Tech in Fall 2021. I delivered lectures and oversaw the laboratory component of course, including supervising and mentoring two teaching assistants and managing laboratory equipment and facilities. A focal component of this course is student-led small group semester projects studying the ecology of local freshwaters.
Prior to serving as instructor of record, I was a TA for BIOL 4004 in 2019-2020, and co-developed a completely virtual laboratory curriculum that included a student-led small group semester project for which students analyzed publicly-available ecological datasets from sources such as the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) and the Environmental Data Initiative (EDI) repository.
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I served as a high school instructor of Biology and Environmental Science for five years in two different schools (Saint James School, Hagerstown, MD 2010-2013 and The Miller School of Albemarle, Crozet, VA 2013-2015). I developed all curriculum and assessments including both lecture and laboratory components, administered all tests and exams, and assigned all grades. I also served as the Environmental Initiatives Coordinator at the Miller School, which among other efforts included maintaining a 55-gallon aquarium of trout fry in my classroom, cared for by student volunteers.