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Teaching

I am an Associate Instructor (AI) at Indiana University Bloomington. Though I have had several assignments, I particularly enjoyed teaching L111, or Evolution & Diversity with Dr. Michael Tansey. In the spring of 2006, 2007 and 2010, as part of this assignment, I ran a total of eighteen discussion sessions with around 15-25 students each. Dr. Tansey here presented lectures in the large auditorium in Jordan Hall. We do a variety of things in discussion sections, though generally we go over potential exam questions with overhead transparencies. I try to get the students to think clearly about the scientific method and how it relates to evolution and biology. I try to provide students with my own thoughts about issues and colorful examples to help them put ideas into context so that they can retain information they learn in lecture. I feel they are better able to do this if they can interpret ideas in the context of their own lives. I am also very aware that students are looking for strategies to deal with the large amount of information they learn in lecture and I try to accommodate this by discussing potential strategies. Finally, before each exam, I provide a skeleton or framework for students to study for each of the exams they take during the semester.

We also do other kinds of activities in discussion sections. For example, one week we do morphometric analyses of humans, human ancestors, and great apes. The purpose of this activity is to illustrate major themes of human evolution and to understand the concept of mosiac evolution in the context of humans. During this activity, which is very popular among the students, they become aware that there were several human species at various times in the past. In addition they learn to identify each of these early human ancestors based on skull morphology. Finally, they learn that there is controversy relating to early human taxonomy and phylogeny.

The image below is of my favorite Human species, the Neanderthal, Homo neanderthalensis (or Homo sapiens neanderthalensis). I took this picture in spring 2006 as if the Neanderthal were looking out my office window.

Teaching experience

·                     Spring 2011 –  Ran two lab sections of B300, Vascular plants, a phylogenetic overview of the vascular plants

·                     Fall 2010 –  One lab section of L100, Humans & the Biological World, an introductory biology lecture/lab course for non-majors

·                     Spring 2010 –  Ran six 50 minute discussion sessions for L111, Evolution & Diversity, an introductory course in evolution for majors

·                     Spring 2009 –  Ran two lab sections of B300, Vascular plants, a phylogenetic overview of the vascular plants

·                     Spring 2007 –  Ran five 50 minute discussion sessions for L111, Evolution & Diversity, an introductory course in evolution for majors

·                     Fall 2007 – Ran two 50 minute discussion sessions for L111, Evolution & Diversity. Assisted other Associate Instructors and undergraduate teaching assistants in weekly meetings

·                     Spring 2006 – Ran five 50 minute discussion sessions for L111, Evolution & Diversity

·                     Fall 2005 – Ran lab and discussion section for L113, an introductory biology lab/discussion course for majors

·                     Spring 2005 – Ran lab and discussion section for L113, an introductory biology lab/discussion course for majors

·                     Fall 2004 – Led lab for L100 Humans & the Biological World, an introductory biology lecture/lab course for non-majors