This course was designed to understand soil physical properties and how physical properties are used to manage soils. Topics included soil solid phase, soil water, soil temperature and energy balance, gas transport, and management considerations. I was a co-instructor for this course, which induced weekly preparation of lectures and developing homework and exams. I taught two sections of SSC 461, one in-person and one online.
Designed as a compliment to SSC 200: Soil Science, this course gives students hand-on experiences in the laboratory and field with the role of soil in the environment and its contributions to agricultural and non-agricultural systems. Topics include describing soil physical, chemical, mineralogical, and biological properties, interactions of soils with plants, soil behavior and management, role of soil in the landscape, use of soil information, and soil classification.
I instructed three sections, which included giving pre-lab lectures, demonstrating experiments, helping students analyze samples and data, and support students with writing laboratory reports. I was also responsible for reviewing for exams and choose to make a detailed exam review and vocabulary sheets for the students.
While teaching this course, we transition from in-person instruction to online instruction due to COVID-19. I worked to give students data from the labs we were no longer able to do, as to give them an opportunity to analyze the data, draw conclusions, and improve their report writing skills. I also held online office hours to give students a chance to ask questions on problems sets and laboratory reports.
This course was designed for students with broad interests in tropical agriculture and food production. Topic included describing, analyzing, and understanding cropping systems of the world (i.e., coffee, chocolate, bananas), environmental and socioeconomic impacts of farming systems, agroecology framework, and international sustainable agriculture issues.
This teaching responsibility was part of my DELTA internship at University of Wisconsin-Madison. I worked to build an online platform and transitioned in-class paper and pencil quizzing to online quizzing. I worked with students to find an optimal format that allowed students to show their knowledge. For example, students like having several multiple choice questions followed by a few short answers questions, where they could elaborate on their understanding of more complex ideas. This gave them an opportunity to think through challenging questions in a low-stakes environment, so they could learn and improve their understanding for the exams or papers. Students also enjoyed the online quizzing format as they reported less stress taking quizzes online at home verses in the classroom.
This course covered the principles and applications of forest fire behavior, prediction, control, and use to manage different landscapes. Additional topics included policy and cultural issues with fire management. I was responsible for leading the discussion section and giving several lectures throughout the semester.