Teaching

My approach to teaching is rooted in my love of biology and learning through the scientific process. Science is often thought of as knowledge itself, rather than an approach to learning about the world. My goal is to help each student become a scientist in their own way - asking testable questions, critically evaluating evidence, digging deep into fields that interest them, and communicating their learning with each other and the public. A quote from a student in one of my inquiry-based courses epitomizes this point, “So, there is no right answer…you want us to develop an answer of our own? I have never had a class like that; that is so cool!”

Courses Taught at Webster University

Biology of Plants Lecture and Lab(BIOL 1030/1031)

Essential of Biology II (BIOL 1560)

Evolution Lecture (BIOL 2010)

Evolution Lab (BIOL 2011, includes short-term, faculty-led trip to Ecuador)

Ecology Lecture and Lab (BIOL 3200/3201)

Senior Thesis (BA: BIOL 4420; BS: BIOL 4430)

Independent Research I & II (BIOL 4700 & 4710)

Teaching Philosophy


Research as pedagogy

I use authentic research experiences and products to create a learner-driven culture while covering significant scientific content. By modeling the scientific process, content is presented to students as an ever-evolving body of knowledge that builds upon previous scientific studies. It also puts the students in the role of the scientist and offers them an opportunity to contribute to this knowledge. In my Ecology course, I put the students in the driver seat as they design and implement a site monitoring project that is the basis for the lab section of the course. While conducting authentic scientific inquiry, students are solving pragmatic problems, learning about their research system, evaluating their scientific process, interpreting their results in a deep and meaningful manner, and communicating those findings with an authentic audience. For instance in my Evolution lecture and laboratory courses, I have my students write, respectively, a popular science article about a topic in evolution or conduct a field-based research project. They choose the topic, evaluate relevant scientific literature, and synthesize the findings into an article that is geared to non-scientists. I highlight the work of my students in the Scientific Gorlok, an annual scientific-style journal, choosing the most improved and top exemplars from the class.

Student-centered instruction

A successful science course develops students’ critical and independent thinking, communication skills, and content knowledge. By fostering individual engagement in the educational process, I encourage my students to be personally invested in and cognizant of their learning. Students integrate their own interests into the course by addressing real-world issues and topics of global concern. Each student is then motivated by his/her own quest for knowledge and not the grade alone. I tailor the topics for discussion to reflect students' diverse interests and encouraged the students to apply the knowledge they gained to real-life examples and fictional situations, such a zombie invasions or elf evolution. While my students may differ in their skills and career goals, each can connect their interest to the topics at hand and gain a deeper appreciation for the role of science in their lives.

Kim Sukhum, an undergraduate research mentee from Gustavus College and me working on her research project in the greenhouse at Washington University. Kim is currently a graduate student in Ecology, Evolution and Population Biology at Washington University

Cooperative learning

I encourage collaboration by structuring activities that allow my students to contribute to the development of their peers. For instance, students in my Ecology class collaborate on an authentic research laboratory. As a class, we designed a general field site monitoring regime, and students, working in groups of 3-4, developed a research question that they then tested using the cumulative data collected by all individuals in the course. They then analyze the data and presented their results to their peers for assessment. By working together, the students not only learned how to manage collaborations, as we scientists must do, but they leverages the work of their peers to gain a deeper understanding of plant biology. As part of my Evolution course, students write a blog on a evolutionary topic of their choosing. The students receive feedback from their peers (and instructors) on the strengths and weaknesses of their project and their presentation style. By the end of the course, the improvement in the clarity of their presentation was substantial and largely driven by the peer-review process. By encouraging thoughtful evaluation of their peers, each student thought of his/her own presentation from the perspective of the audience and considered the topic in a broader context. They are invested in the success of their peers, which builds camaraderie and personal responsibility for their learning.

Teaching as a dynamic process

Teaching, like any complex skill, is an adaptive process, and I strive to continually improve my teaching via integration of novel pedagogical methods and regular assessment of student learning. Fostering the development of complex skills requires a keen awareness of the learners and regular evaluation of progress throughout. To build familiarity and consistently assess the status of my students, I use techniques that document the students’ understanding or misconceptions of a topic (mid-class minute papers, pre-semester surveys, mid-semester evaluations, etc.) throughout the semester. These tools provide an up-to-date view of student learning, provide feedback on the effectiveness of each pedagogical tool I use, and help me refine the direction of the class as the semester progresses. By continually developing my pedagogical methods and learning from research on science teaching, I strive to cultivate more effective teaching practices and more meaningful learning experiences for my students.

Students observing a preying mantis that they discovered during a field experiment on campus.