Teaching

Outdoor science and immersive, experiential learning:

In July of 2023 I was able to serve as Teaching Faculty for Block 3 of the Juneau Icefield Research Program (JIRP). Having run for over 75 years, JIRP provides college credit for a two-month traverse of the Juneau Icefield by ski, teaching skills in mountaineering, glaciology, glacier biology, science communication, and research methods. The scale of the terrain, the complexity of the logistics, the stoke of the students for learning and exploring, and the caliber of the people and the community formed was nothing short of awe inspiring, and it reinvigorated my enthusiasm for teaching, researching, and exploring.

There are two more 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. In-person expeditions have run in 2018, 2022, and 2023. In 2021 the ongoing concerns about Covid-19 led us to run a virtual Expedition@Home version, for which I was one of the instructors. 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 can 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.