Recent Courses
This page describes recent courses that I assisted in teaching.
Gerridae
Syrphidae
Long-necked Ground Beetle (Colliuris pensylvanica)
Gerridae
Insect Diversity and Evolution
I was the teaching assistant for this course in Fall 2013 and Fall 2015 at Cornell University. I was responsible for grading quizzes and exams and answering student questions. I also organized and led the lab section. In the early labs I organized collecting excursions for the students to gain experience in finding and identifying a diversity of insects in various habitats. Later in the semester, I led labs designed to expose students to insect diversity through unknown specimen identification. For this purpose, I developed photo identification and specimen quizzes for students to practice their identification skills. I am currently developing guides to assist students in using the most common keys for identification.
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Guest Lectures: Phylogeny and Insect-Plant Interactions (2013 & 2015)
Naturalist Outreach Practicum
I was the teaching assistant for this course in Fall 2014 at Cornell University. The goal of the course is to teach students how to effectively communicate science. I was responsible for grading assignments, providing feedback on presentation materials, and answering student questions. I was also responsible for arranging student presentations in local schools throughout the semester. This course showed me how important effective communication skills are and how service learning can be an incredibly powerful tool in classrooms.
For more information about this course, please click here.
Tropical Field Entomology
I was a teaching assistant for this course in January 2015 at Cornell University. I was responsible for grading assignments and answering student questions. I assisted students with developing and implementing research projects that were carried out in Costa Rica at the La Selva Biological Field Station. This course provided me with a wonderful opportunity to share my love for insect diversity and to improve my mentoring skills.
For more information about this course, please click here.
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Guest Lecture: Insect Defenses
Carabidae
Scarabaeidae
Tachinidae
Carabidae
Alien Empire
I was a teaching assistant for this course in Spring 2016 at Cornell University. I was responsible for grading assignments and answering student questions. I was responsible for a discussion section where I moderated debates, led discussions of insect films, and engaged students in preparatory exercises for their term papers. This course was an excellent opportunity for me to practice teaching in my own discussion section. As a non-majors course, this was also a great opportunity to work on my science communication skills in teaching about insects to students across a diversity of majors.
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Guest Lectures: Subsocial Insects (2016)
& Insects in Art and Popular Culture (2017)
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