Teaching

Outdoor science and immersive, experiential learning:

There are two programs in particular I encourage you to check out and to interact with!

The first is a program I am currently on the leadership board in organizing here in Colorado: Girls On Rock (GOR) is a two-week wilderness expedition for high school girls (including cis, trans, and nonbinary) to explore Colorado’s Rocky Mountains through building backpacking and rock climbing skills, artistic expression, and independent scientific research projects. The first expedition was run in 2018. In 2021 due to ongoing concerns about Covid-19 risks we ran a virtual Expedition@Home, for which I was one of the instructors. The second in-person expedition is gearing up to be in July of 2022! Selection of the participants is NOT based on grades or past experience, but on the new growth opportunities it would provide the girls. The program is tuition FREE so anyone could participate, regardless of family income. We make that happen through grants and donations so please support the program by donating here!

The second is a program I was funded by a NASA Arizona Space Grant Fellowship to pilot and help develop: the UA Science Sky School. Set in an astronomy observatory on a Sky Island, a 9,000+ foot peak covered in pine forest in a “sea” of lower-elevation desert, K-12 classes (or any chaperoned group) explore their public lands by day through independent scientific research projects advised by graduate students (including me back in the day), and explore the skies through the giant telescopes by night. Groups stay in on-site dorms, and the 1-3 night programs culminate in a scientific symposium and reflections on their experiences. Sky School is also made more affordable to Title I schools, youth experiencing homelessness, and others with less means through charitable donations, and you can help with that by donating here.

UA Science Sky School Fellows, all graduate students, prepare to lead high school programs by sharing knowledge from our different areas of expertise.

More traditional college-level courses taught:

In the fall of 2021, I served as adjunct lecturer for Microbial Ecology at the University of Colorado Boulder (you can see my syllabus here).

In the summer of 2018 I honed my instructing skills with a 20-hour in Evidence-Based Instructor Training through CU Boulder’s Center for the Integration of Research, Teaching, and Learning.

I have also given multiple guest lectures to Microbial Ecology and Microbiology courses on virology, and during graduate school at the University of Arizona served as a teaching assistant for courses in Ecology, Environmental Biology, Vertebrate Physiology, and Conservation Biology.