Teaching Philosophy
My goal as an educator is to provide students with the critical thinking skills, to give them tools to improve their scientific literacy, and to use a wide variety of teaching and assessment strategies to address diversity in learning style and educational background. I want students to engage critically with material and to tackle intellectual challenges with curiosity and excitement for learning. It is my mission to convey the value in learning and understanding science and its implications for my students’ world. Through being a teaching assistant, teaching camps in the summer, working in economically challenged public schools, and leading teacher workshops, I have been lucky to have had the opportunity to expose students to field and laboratory projects to gain hands-on experience and encourage them to teach one another.
I enjoyed the balance that teaching and outreach have brought to my graduate career and I have benefited from exploring ways of explaining and teaching scientific concepts in both tried and true and novel and creative ways. In my classes, I integrate teaching and assessment tools gained from current research in science education with those that I have gleaned from my years of experience. It was rewarding and even fun to be a teaching assistant at University of Colorado, Boulder as many of our courses transitioned from content-heavy lecture courses to environments full of active learning. Through this experience I have concluded that reducing the achievement gap between different learning styles is best achieved with a combination of a highly structured class with opportunities for learning assessment and retention and an active learning setting. My students learned best when they engaged in lessons that challenged previously held assumptions and also were required to explain their ideas. In my classes I asked students to present on topics they had recently learned, as I firmly believe that teaching is the best way to learn. During my time as an outreach scientist in the Denver public schools with the Biological Sciences Initiative, I had extensive experience developing learning goals and activities to achieve those learning goals.
I enjoyed the balance that teaching and outreach have brought to my graduate career and I have benefited from exploring ways of explaining and teaching scientific concepts in both tried and true and novel and creative ways. In my classes, I integrate teaching and assessment tools gained from current research in science education with those that I have gleaned from my years of experience. It was rewarding and even fun to be a teaching assistant at University of Colorado, Boulder as many of our courses transitioned from content-heavy lecture courses to environments full of active learning. Through this experience I have concluded that reducing the achievement gap between different learning styles is best achieved with a combination of a highly structured class with opportunities for learning assessment and retention and an active learning setting. My students learned best when they engaged in lessons that challenged previously held assumptions and also were required to explain their ideas. In my classes I asked students to present on topics they had recently learned, as I firmly believe that teaching is the best way to learn. During my time as an outreach scientist in the Denver public schools with the Biological Sciences Initiative, I had extensive experience developing learning goals and activities to achieve those learning goals.
Teaching and Outreach Experience:
Designer and instructor for Science Content Workshops for Teachers: Birds, Beaks, Feathers and Forensics, Biological Sciences Initiative, University of Colorado, Boulder |
CU Course designer and instructor for Science Discovery Summer Programs for Birds, Beaks and Beyond and Animal Behavior, University of Colorado, Boulder
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Lesson designer and instructor on Science Squad, Biological Sciences Initiative, University of Colorado, Boulder: link
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