Teaching & Mentoring
Taking BML summer students out on a phytoplankton sampling cruise.
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As a scientific educator, I believe that it’s invaluable for students to directly experience and interact with the scientific process through their own ideas and creative inspiration. Students thrive through guided and supportive exploration, and I take students through the process of observation, hypothesis testing and experimentation whenever possible in my work and teaching. As a TA for “Experimental Invertebrate Biology” and “Coastal Marine Research,” I guided undergraduates from UC Davis and Sonoma State University through all stages of independent scientific research projects focused on questions pertaining to marine organismal biology, evolution and ecology. This process started with question generation, the development and execution of experimental design, introductory statistical analyses, and finally written research reports and oral presentations at a public symposium held at the Bodega Marine Lab (BML). The development of written and oral communication skills is a priority in my teaching. Fostering the development of students’ abilities in these areas is an essential tool for life long learning and improving the expression of scientific information. These topics are important to me and ones that I will focus on with my students in any course that I teach.
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During both graduate school and post-graduation, I was fortunate to be able to develop two courses with my former PhD advisor, Dr. Eric Sanford, both a graduate and undergraduate course in scientific film making. Drawing from my experience and coursework in film studies as an undergraduate at UC Santa Barbara, these courses resulted in the generation of promotional films (with content produced entirely by students) highlighting the inspiration behind scientific research at BML. In both courses, students generated short films showcasing their research interests and/or the work of their mentors, including personal narratives of their diverse backgrounds and motivations in science. These pieces highlighted unique stories and voices in the field. Using film as an artistic medium, I have watched as students deeply connect with the environmental challenges their generation will face, and then constructively struggle with how convey these themes through basic narrative storytelling and video production. I hope to have the opportunity to continue expanding upon my teaching experience in this area by developing new courses in scientific film making, thematically centered on marine food, utilizing video as a creative medium.
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Student video on marine research created as part of the undergraduate course BIS 124: Scientific Communication Through Video
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I've enjoyed mentoring over 25 undergraduate students from the UC, CSUs and local community colleges, each of whom have been intimately involved in both my graduate and post graduate research programs. More than half of these students have gone on to pursue advanced degrees in the biological sciences with my backing and support and I have published three papers with undergraduate collaborators with a fourth currently in preparation. Through my mentorship, I've become appreciative of how interacting with students and young researchers in the scientific process can broaden the relevance and perspectives on the work that I conduct. Questions from students that at first seem obscure or misinformed, frequently later give me pause, causing me to re-examine my assumptions and aspects of my work I hadn’t considered or taken for granted. I derive strength from these interactions and the collaborative learning that results, as they remind me of the important connections mentors and mentees share, and the diverse and relevant perspectives students have stemming from their unique backgrounds and experiences in life.
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A "Virtual Tour of Bodega Marine Laboratory" developed by graduate students as part of the Graduate Seminar PBG 298: The BML Video Project
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Group photo with students from EVE 114 "Experimental Invertebrate Biology"