Teaching & Outreach | Personal Research

Teaching experience

Plant Physiology Lab

KSU (BIOL 501) Fall 2019-2022

I had the opportunity to co-instruct the plant physiology lab from 2019 - 2022 at KSU. In this lab, students take the theory they learn in lecture and apply it to real-life ecological questions. They gain hands-on experience using equipment (LiCor-6400, pressure bomb, porometer, spectrophotometer, etc.) and learning current methods in ecophysiological research. Students also practice reading and summarizing research articles throughout the semester, and gain experience analyzing data, visualizing that data, and then communicating results via written reports and short presentations. Students develop their own research question depending on their personal interests, and write a proposal for a study aimed at answering that question.

Savanna Ecology

KSU (BIOL 495-C) Spring 2021

In the spring of 2021, I co-instructed a Savanna Ecology course, and had the opportunity to develop lectures and group activities. In this course, students were given a broad overview of savanna ecology. Part of our aim was to peak the students' interest in some aspect of ecology and introduce them to reading and writing about science. We covered the evolution of C4 grasses and savanna ecosystems, climate drivers, soil nutrients, vegetation, grazers/browsers, predator-prey dynamics, trophic dynamics, as well as savanna conservation. In this course, we utilized a combination of interactive lectures and group activities to keep students engaged and allow them to dive deeper into subjects that interest them. In the summer of 2022, this course was expanded to a 2-week field course in South Africa led by Emily Wedel and Jesse Nippert.

Organismic Biology

KSU (BIOL 201) Spring 2020

In this lab course, students explore the structure and function of a wide range of organisms, from single-celled bacteria to vascular plants to mammals. The course focuses on phylogenetic relationships between groups of organisms, and a primary goal is to help students understand how different groups are related in the context of evolutionary history. As a teaching assistant in this course, my responsibilities included preparing and delivering short lectures, organizing lab activities, and assisting students as they worked through self-guided labs where they observe and dissect specimens, gain microscopy experience, and work through complex processes such as avian respiration and fungal life cycles.

Andropogon gerardii cross-section by the amazing Seton Bachle