Teaching

Learning shouldn't be boring or difficult. Hours spent in a chair copying notes really doesn't help a student engage with the material. I prefer to lecture as little as possible. I like to introduce the necessary concepts and then ask students to apply them in small discussion groups or take students outside and show them what we've talked about in class. I'm often the quirky professor bringing branches and leaves to class or asking students to draw out a diagram of a process. Why? Because they learn better if they can see it and, for many of them, it helps them make a connection to the field.


I have developed many stand-alone workshops on geospatial technology for #maptimeDavis, UC Davis DataLab (formerly Data Science Initiative), and UC Davis Library's Data Management Program, including:

  • Introduction to GIS with QGIS

  • Cartography for Map Figures in Academic Journals & Books

  • Introduction to SQL

  • Spatial SQL

  • Building Web Maps with Leaflet

  • Map Projections in R

  • Participatory Mapping with Field Papers

  • Geocoding

  • Cartography with QGIS & Inkscape

  • Geospatial Data Visualization


I have designed and taught the following classes:

Art to Science - Students learned and applied digital art skills to explaining ecology concepts in this upper division wildlife biology course - University of California Davis' Wildlife, Fish, & Conservation Biology Dept. - Fall 2012.

Biogeography - An upper division introductory course in the concepts and methods in the field of biogeography.- California State University Sacramento's Geography Dept. - Fall 2012

California Geography - A lower division introductory course in the physical and human geography of California- University of California Davis' Science & Society Program - Fall 2014 - examples of extra credit projects are available for download at the bottom of the page.

Cartography - A graduate level course in cartography and geospatial data representation - University of California Davis' Geography Graduate Group & Department of Human Ecology - Spring 2015


Courses I would like to develop and teach:

Coastal Geography

Plant Geography & Ecology

GIS

Remote Sensing