Teaching
I strive to design and lead stimulating courses that provide students opportunities to maximize their intellectual growth. Traditional courses centered on passive learning have become increasingly recognized as failing to achieve optimal student outcomes regarding content retention and engagement with the material. Further, these instructional designs perpetuate inequities that fall along historically marginalized racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic lines. As a result, I believe it is imperative to apply the same standards of rigor and evidence-based practice to my teaching that I apply to my research; this means being adaptive and dynamic in my teaching according to the needs of my students and current best practices in pedagogy.
Courses Taught
Hamilton College
Introduction to Environmental Data (ENVST-206)
This course examines the potential for big data to address major environmental issues related to climate change, conservation, and water security. We gain a critical understanding of the role of satellites, environmental sensors, and community science in describing the environment. Topics of discussion include data life cycles, statistics, visualization, and statistical programs for environmental data. This course is centered using R programming language to read, analyze, and visualize environmental data.
Introduction to Environmental Studies (ENVST-110)
This course presents the core literature, theories, and concepts in environmental studies, with a focus on the emerging discipline of sustainability science. It provides a comprehensive foundation for interdisciplinary study of contemporary environmental issues that will prepare students for more advanced work on the biophysical, social and human dimensions of environmental problems, including problems at the food-energy-water-climate nexus.
Global Wildlife Trade (ENVST-317)
This course considers the ecological, socioeconomic, and cultural impacts of the global wildlife trade. We explore perspectives from ecology, conservation science, natural resource management, criminology, native and indigenous studies, and public health to gain insight into this expansive and interdisciplinary phenomenon. Additionally, students gain experience working with primary data to answer original research questions about the wildlife trade.
Rutgers University
Animal Behavior (11:216:441)
Why do female mantises eat males’ heads after mating? Why do dominant side- blotched lizards allow non-dominant males in their territory? Why will male digger bees try to mate with a human’s thumb? These strange habits can be explained by understanding what regulates animal behavior and how these behaviors evolved. An understanding of animal behavior not only puts many of the strange actions of animals into context but also allows for better applications of wildlife ecology, conservation, and even a greater understanding of human interactions. This course covers a wide variety of animal behaviors while simultaneously diving into the internal processes that regulate the behavior and the evolutionary context that developed the behavior.
Topics in Ecology, Evolution, & Natural Resources (11:216:104)
The primary learning goal of this major-specific course was to expose students to the intellectual purview and contemporary topics of study in the fields of ecology, evolution, and natural resources (EENR). As instructor, I facilitated opportunities for my students to meet and discuss research and career paths with professors in the EENR department at Rutgers. Students were additionally tasked with reading scientific papers authored by EENR faculty and writing a series of short reflection papers designed to encourage students to think critically about how the material discussed in the readings and in their faculty meetings relates to their intellectual interests and career goals.
