Teaching
Based on several rewarding teaching experiences, I have realized that I want to teach as part of my career. As a graduate student I have participated in many opportunities to improve my teaching skills including the Preparing Future Faculty program at Duke. In addition, I have participated in a number of courses and workshops that have introduced me to the most recent teaching pedagogy including Introduction to College Teaching, Instructional Uses of Technology, and the Teaching Ideas workshops at Duke. Based on these courses and my own experience as a student and teacher in the classroon, I have developed several ideas about how students learn, effective teaching, and both my strengths as an instructor as well as goals I have for personal growth as a teacher.
Teaching Statement
Effective learning is a joint exercise between the teacher and students, and I enjoy learning from and with my students throughout each semester. This process of continual learning is very similar to an approach I apply in my restoration ecology research called adaptive management (Holling 1978). Applying concepts from the theory of adaptive management of ecosystems to my teaching, I have developed a teaching approach I call "Adaptive Teaching" that has three primary principles.
I. Get to know students; modify learning objectives and activities accordingly.
Knowing the site history is crucial in order to determine the best restoration strategies for a project, but equally important is the ability to modify the design and management of a site in order to achieve the desired goals. Likewise, it is important for me to become acquainted with my students at the beginning of every course. Getting to know the class enables me to refine course goals and objectives to suit the group's interests and needs. Once I know my students I can also design activities so that new information will build on and link to the preexisting knowledge my students already possess. As we get to know each other, we also create a friendly, open classroom atmosphere that promotes learning.
II. Create a dynamic classroom; focus on student involvement and development.
Restoration is effective when the environmental conditions of the restored site support a flourishing plant, animal, and microbial community. Similarly, an effective classroom is a dynamic and interactive place where students thrive and enjoy learning. In an interactive classroom, my role as the instructor is not to give a lecture but to lead class. I motivate and guide student participation in their own learning using activities such as group projects and presentations (see syllabus for examples of these kinds of activities). Which activities I select are almost irrelevant, however, as long as the students are actively participating. Minimizing the time spent lecturing and instead involving students in their own learning process enables them to practice critical thinking and leads to a deeper understanding of the course material (See Teaching with Technology page for more details about methods to involve students in class such as Personal Response Systems). My goal is every class is to create a learner-centered classroom in which students are enthusiastic about the subject and excited to learn.
III. Make it real and personal; involve students in the scientific process.
Restoration projects are most successful when everyone involved feels invested in the outcome. In the same way, successful learning occurs when students care about the topic; this happens especially when a topic is relevant to their daily lives. Thus, I use hands-on activities, such as soil sampling and testing to see if soil is reduced, and field trips, to connect science to the real-world and students' lives (Example: Photo of field trip in Wetlands Ecology to a bottomland hardwood forest). 
This connection provides a context for the material so that students retain the knowledge well beyond course exams. But, equally important is that they recognize science, not as a bunch of facts to memorize, but as a body of knowledge that is continually evolving. Discussions of hot topics in the primary literature, such as the biodiversity and ecosystem function debate, are one way I encourage students to take an active role in the scientific process. Through these discussions, students learn that the scientific process involves being appropriately critical of others' claims and methods, and also developing one's own research questions and hypotheses.
One of the criticisms of restoration ecology is that there is not enough monitoring of restoration effectiveness and even less published about the results of projects that are monitored. The same can be said about research on teaching. Teachers often experiment in the classroom but rarely share the results with colleagues. As a result, one of my teaching and research goals is to share what I have learned with the community of scholars through both presentations and publications (for example see Sutton-Grier and Kenney 2005).
back to top
Mentoring: The Intersection of Teaching and Research
One of my life-long goals is to mentor others as they develop their scientific interests. I have already had many positive experiences mentoring a high school student, undergraduates, and graduate students at Duke in the lab setting, teaching them good lab practices and discussing the hypotheses motivating our lab's wetland research. I am particularly interested in mentoring as a way of increasing gender, cultural, and ethnic/racial diversity in the sciences. In 2006, I had the unique opportunity to mentor three 8th grade girls as part of a PBS kids' science show called DragonflyTV (see Professional Development) during an episode that featured N.C. wetlands. In addition I have participated for several years in the in the "Expanding Your Horizons" event at N.C. State University which introduces 8th grade girls to science and math careers. Mentoring scientists needs to start at an early age and continue through one's career. I look forward to mentoring students in my own lab, encouraging and cultivating future scientific leaders.Teaching Experience
I have experience assisting in teaching graduate courses in Wetlands Ecology and Wetland Restoration. In addition, I co-designed and co-taught an undergraduate course called "Feminism and Ecology" (see syllabus and reading list). I would be very interested in teaching an upper division or graduate level course in any of these topics. In addition, I would welcome the opportunity to develop courses, for undergraduate and/or graduate students, in Biodiversity, Biogeochemistry, Restoration Ecology, and Environmental Science. I would also enjoy the opportunity to teach interdisciplinary courses and to team teach. Just as students learn well from each other, teachers can learn a great deal from working with and observing each other in the classroom. No matter what topic I teach, however, my teaching techniques and class activities are guided by two student learning goals. I desire that students understand (1) the importance and relevance of science to their daily lives, and (2) the creative and exciting nature of scientific discovery.
References
Holling, C. S. 1978. Adaptive Environmental Assessment and Management. Wiley, Chichester.
Sutton-Grier, A. E., and M. A. Kenney. 2005. Recruiters and Academia: A Class Act. Nature 436:886.
back to top
