Teaching Philosophy
Why good pedagogy is important
The quality of teaching that students receive plays a significant role in the decision to stay in STEM or leave. When I was an undergraduate, it was easy to distinguish between classes that I did not enjoy and those that I did. However, it was not until I began teaching that I was able to identify why I learned better in some classes and why some classes were more enjoyable than others. I realized that I got the most out of those classes where the professors engaged with the students beyond the typical lecture format and there was interaction with other students. It was obvious that these professors were excited about what they were teaching, wanted to share their knowledge with students and had taken the time to develop an environment that was hospitable to different learning styles. Having a well thought-out pedagogy improves student learning and allows them to move from simplistic ways of thinking to incorporate the more complex forms of learning outlined in Bloom’s taxonomy. Effective teaching requires consideration of the whole student beyond just their learning style. It necessitates thinking about their background, culture, and life outside of the classroom. Multiple studies have found that the intellectual, social, emotional, and physical environment of a course strongly influences classroom learning (Ambrose, Ch. 6). By deliberately creating an inclusive, welcoming environment in class or the lab, students are more likely to feel as if they belong, and have better learning outcomes.
Mentoring Experience
In the lab I train my students so that they learn every technique that I know and that they are fully engaged in the research. When they first start working in the lab, I start with basic techniques such as preparing media and work up to more complex tasks that are part of the actual experiments. We don’t just go over the protocols of the experiment; we also go over the theory behind it so they know why they are doing a particular experiment and what questions we hope to answer, with the goal of having them take ownership of their projects. As part of this, I have had my students present their work at university symposia and regional meetings and they have been co-authors on several of my publications. I also use the lab as an opportunity to get my students to make connections between the research we are doing with concepts and ideas that are presented outside of the lab. I want my students to be able to take what I teach them and use it in other aspects of their lives. As a result, two of my students, both underrepresented minority women, won awards for best undergraduate researcher in Rice’s EEB department, two students received GRFP funding, five students went onto advanced degrees, and another three are working towards them.
Teaching Experience
As a PhD student, I helped design a half-semester seminar course (EBIO116) that introduced freshman to ecology and evolutionary biology research at Rice. I chose two papers from EEB labs that we would discuss for one week before getting a tour of the lab. We would meet and talk to researchers at all stages from undergraduate researchers to lab PIs. We finished the course with a field trip to either the Houston Zoo or the Houston Museum of Natural Science to introduce the students to science and research outside of the university setting. The first semester I taught I had three students. The next semester my class grew to fifteen students. For the last two years at WSU, I have been teaching a data camp program to the REU students in our lab. The first summer that I taught it, I focused on teaching students how to do data science using the statistical program R. Last summer I revamped the course to include an experiential learning component. Prior to the students arriving, I setup a large experiment to study the genotypic effects of different rhizobia on host plant traits and fitness. When the students arrived, they collected data ranging from biomass to flowering time. Then I taught them how to use R to visualize and model data along with some basic statistics. At the end of the program the students developed a testable hypothesis using the data they had collected, analyzed the data, and presented their work at the WSU Summer REU poster session
My expectations for my students and myself
I will continue to develop as a teacher, using informed, research-based pedagogy I will strive to reach all of my students, no matter their learning style and create an environment where they want to learn and will be able to apply their knowledge outside of the classroom. My hope is that my students leave my class with a hunger to learn more about the world around them. I know that even if they do not pursue careers in science, they will have gained an appreciation and understanding of science. Additionally, they will have developed important skills in problem solving and critical thinking, which will serve them well, no matter their career choice.
