Teaching
I love teaching and am looking forward to the opportunity to teach more in the future. I would be particularly interested in teaching courses such as: Stream and River Ecology, Limnology, General Ecology, Ecosystem Ecology, Biogoechemistry, Water Resources, and Environmental Science.
Previous Teaching Experience
Teaching Internship: General Ecology, Bio 209, Fall 2009
I taught general ecology at Idaho State University in the fall of 2009. Under the supervision of Dr. Ken Aho, I lectured, instructed labs, wrote and graded exams and participated in curriculum development amounting to 1/3 of the full course responsibility. Most of my lectures focused on the topics of aquatic biomes, life histories, primary production, food webs and nutrient cycles. I began every lecture with an "ecology in the news" story from mass media which serves both as an attention grabber and introduces the students to topics in ecology with local applicability. I lectured and led a lab on statistical analysis using linear regression and ANOVA. I also developed a new lab for this course during which students formulate hypotheses regarding the diversity of fauna in local streams then learned to collect and identify macroinvertebrates in these streams and calculated divserity indexes. I have used "minute papers" as a rapid assessment of student learning as well as the effectiveness of my lectures in communicating concepts to the students. This internship has prepared me well to develop my own ecology course.
Instructor: Biogeochemistry: elemental cycles from molecules to the global scale, Bio 651, 2 Credits, Spring 2010
I developed and taught a graduate seminar on biogeochemical cycles and ecological stoichiometry at Idaho State University, spring 2010. Students were assigned a combination of readings from textbooks as well as the primary literature to prepare them for discussion on topics including the biogeochemistry of different ecosystems and global elemental cycles as well as the drivers and forcings affecting these cycles. Students were also assigned a final project for which they chose a topic related to the class and either create a new Wikipedia page on that topic or greatly improve an existing Wikipedia page for their chosen topic with complete citations from the primary literature.
Other Teaching Experience
Guest lecturer
UNH, Watershed management and water quality
Idaho State University, Intro Biology, Advanced Limnology, Ecosystem Ecology
Field teacher / Naturalist, W. Alton Jones campus, University of Rhode Island, Teach field ecology and environmental science lessons to school groups, August 2003-June 2004
Teaching Assistant, Colby College
Microorganisms and Society Bio 133, Colby College, Spring 2003
Taxonomy of Flowering Plants Bio 211, Colby College, Fall 2000
Previous Teaching Experience
Teaching Internship: General Ecology, Bio 209, Fall 2009
I taught general ecology at Idaho State University in the fall of 2009. Under the supervision of Dr. Ken Aho, I lectured, instructed labs, wrote and graded exams and participated in curriculum development amounting to 1/3 of the full course responsibility. Most of my lectures focused on the topics of aquatic biomes, life histories, primary production, food webs and nutrient cycles. I began every lecture with an "ecology in the news" story from mass media which serves both as an attention grabber and introduces the students to topics in ecology with local applicability. I lectured and led a lab on statistical analysis using linear regression and ANOVA. I also developed a new lab for this course during which students formulate hypotheses regarding the diversity of fauna in local streams then learned to collect and identify macroinvertebrates in these streams and calculated divserity indexes. I have used "minute papers" as a rapid assessment of student learning as well as the effectiveness of my lectures in communicating concepts to the students. This internship has prepared me well to develop my own ecology course.
Instructor: Biogeochemistry: elemental cycles from molecules to the global scale, Bio 651, 2 Credits, Spring 2010
I developed and taught a graduate seminar on biogeochemical cycles and ecological stoichiometry at Idaho State University, spring 2010. Students were assigned a combination of readings from textbooks as well as the primary literature to prepare them for discussion on topics including the biogeochemistry of different ecosystems and global elemental cycles as well as the drivers and forcings affecting these cycles. Students were also assigned a final project for which they chose a topic related to the class and either create a new Wikipedia page on that topic or greatly improve an existing Wikipedia page for their chosen topic with complete citations from the primary literature.
Other Teaching Experience
Guest lecturer
UNH, Watershed management and water quality
Idaho State University, Intro Biology, Advanced Limnology, Ecosystem Ecology
Field teacher / Naturalist, W. Alton Jones campus, University of Rhode Island, Teach field ecology and environmental science lessons to school groups, August 2003-June 2004
Teaching Assistant, Colby College
Microorganisms and Society Bio 133, Colby College, Spring 2003
Taxonomy of Flowering Plants Bio 211, Colby College, Fall 2000
Recent Outreach
Summer 2013: I developed and led a day long activity on water quality for UNH's teach camp for girls (Engineeristas). We collected and identified macroinvertebrates from different streams and used them as water quality indicator species in addition to collecting water quality data using in-situ sensors. We compared data collected from 3 local streams and discussed our findings.
December 2012 - ongoing: I am a representative for the city of Concord, NH to the Upper Merrimack River Local Advisory Committee (UMRLAC). For more about UMRLAC and river advisory committees in NH please visit the webpage.
I am a contributor to the Ecosystem and Society blog. You can find my blog posts here published in June and September 2013.
December 2012 - ongoing: I am a representative for the city of Concord, NH to the Upper Merrimack River Local Advisory Committee (UMRLAC). For more about UMRLAC and river advisory committees in NH please visit the webpage.
I am a contributor to the Ecosystem and Society blog. You can find my blog posts here published in June and September 2013.