Teaching Philosophy
Students take college level courses in the biological sciences for a variety of reasons. Many students are meeting pre-requisites for majors like medicine or engineering, but will not ultimately become scientists. Some students, such as myself as an undergraduate, may have an interest in the natural sciences or even in a career in this area, but are not sure what that looks like. My ultimate goal is to have all students, regardless of their initial interest level or motivating force, feel that they have gained a better understanding of the material, and have made connections between what they learn in the classroom and their everyday lives.
I strive to achieve this goal in a number of different ways: 1) Clear learning objectives tied to material 2) Emphasis on critical thinking and conceptual framework building 3) Active learning in the classroom 4) Focus on dialogue and peer-led teaching 5) Field based (outdoor) learning 6) Hands-on projects and presentations 7) Opportunities for undergraduates to participate in research and 8) Inclusive Pedagogy.
Data Science Education
I have a passion for teaching students about ecology and data science and find this one of the most rewarding parts of my career. I actively utilize and teach best practices in reproducible research and open data science including creating and leading a live coding workshop on “Incorporating Github into your workflow” as part of a three part R workshop series I organized through the WiSE network. I find coding, mathematical modeling, and statistics are often areas where students feel intimidated and I aim to make these concepts more accessible by applying them to biological questions that students are interested in, and getting students working hands-on with real data. I have used this approach to teach students in many environments, including formal classes as instructor of record, student working groups, discussion groups and seminars.
In 2023, I developed and was the lead instructor for a week-long data science working group for 10 PhD and MS students from across Canada, by the Canadian Institute for Ecology and Evolution (CIEE) Living Data Project. Students worked hands-on with large publicly available datasets to answer outstanding questions in ecology and we explored different statistical modeling approaches such as Bayesian hierarchical modeling and posterior predictive modeling. Students shared that they gained new knowledge and skills in this hands-on learning environment and felt empowered to try new statistical modeling approaches and work with large datasets. Students also took a leadership role in writing a manuscript post-working group (Lertzman-Lepofsky et al. (2024) Quantifying pairwise relationships in biodiversity through time and space using long term data- currently in review at Ecography).
As a postdoc at CU Boulder, I co-taught a graduate level course in “Community Ecology methods” (EBIO 6100) in Spring 2021 (Instructor of record). During this course, I led students through a myriad of biostatical approaches in community ecology including multivariate analyses (ordination and factor analyses), and Joint species distribution modeling and developed R modules where students could apply these techniques to their own data. I used some of my own publications to showcase different examples of how these methods could be applied to diverse ecological datasets including plant and soil microbial community data including DNA sequencing data (Collins et al. 2016, 2018, 2020). Students from this course gave feedback that I was “able to take a very challenging topic (joint species distribution models) and make it approachable to someone with little experience.”
Pedagogical training
I am committed to pedagogical training in best practices for creating effective lesson plans, enhancing experiential learning and promoting equity, diversity, and inclusion in the classroom. Most recently, I completed the Postdoctoral Instructional Skills Workshop (ISW), which is a 4-day workshop that focuses on the theory and practice of evidence-based teaching techniques through the Centre for the Integration of Research, Teaching and Learning (CIRTL) at UBC. I gained experience inviting and confirming learning, dealing with challenging classroom scenarios, conducting formative assessments, using active learning strategies, and understanding and helping to remove barriers to learning for disadvantaged or historically marginalized groups. As a PhD student, I took a 10-week course on “Teaching Biology at the College level.” This course was transformational and changed the way I viewed teaching from a purely instructor-led to a peer-led and group learning environment. We focused on active learning strategies while completing weekly self-assessments on our effectiveness using these strategies with our students.
Additional trainings I have received include: a 1) CIRTL workshop on supporting neurodivergent students in the classroom, 2) Teaching webinar on “Adapting Your Research for Undergraduate Education” and 3) Online panel on “Cultivating Inclusion in the Classroom.” In these trainings, I have learned important strategies to increase equity in the classroom for all students including strengths-based learning and universal design for learning (UDL) approaches. I aim to make undergraduate participation in research more accessible, engaging and aligned with course material as well as to create relationship-centered and community learning focused classroom environments. Overall, I bring my personal experiences, training and commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion to my classrooms, serving as an ally and outspoken advocate for all students.
Students take college level courses in the biological sciences for a variety of reasons. Many students are meeting pre-requisites for majors like medicine or engineering, but will not ultimately become scientists. Some students, such as myself as an undergraduate, may have an interest in the natural sciences or even in a career in this area, but are not sure what that looks like. My ultimate goal is to have all students, regardless of their initial interest level or motivating force, feel that they have gained a better understanding of the material, and have made connections between what they learn in the classroom and their everyday lives.
I strive to achieve this goal in a number of different ways: 1) Clear learning objectives tied to material 2) Emphasis on critical thinking and conceptual framework building 3) Active learning in the classroom 4) Focus on dialogue and peer-led teaching 5) Field based (outdoor) learning 6) Hands-on projects and presentations 7) Opportunities for undergraduates to participate in research and 8) Inclusive Pedagogy.
Data Science Education
I have a passion for teaching students about ecology and data science and find this one of the most rewarding parts of my career. I actively utilize and teach best practices in reproducible research and open data science including creating and leading a live coding workshop on “Incorporating Github into your workflow” as part of a three part R workshop series I organized through the WiSE network. I find coding, mathematical modeling, and statistics are often areas where students feel intimidated and I aim to make these concepts more accessible by applying them to biological questions that students are interested in, and getting students working hands-on with real data. I have used this approach to teach students in many environments, including formal classes as instructor of record, student working groups, discussion groups and seminars.
In 2023, I developed and was the lead instructor for a week-long data science working group for 10 PhD and MS students from across Canada, by the Canadian Institute for Ecology and Evolution (CIEE) Living Data Project. Students worked hands-on with large publicly available datasets to answer outstanding questions in ecology and we explored different statistical modeling approaches such as Bayesian hierarchical modeling and posterior predictive modeling. Students shared that they gained new knowledge and skills in this hands-on learning environment and felt empowered to try new statistical modeling approaches and work with large datasets. Students also took a leadership role in writing a manuscript post-working group (Lertzman-Lepofsky et al. (2024) Quantifying pairwise relationships in biodiversity through time and space using long term data- currently in review at Ecography).
As a postdoc at CU Boulder, I co-taught a graduate level course in “Community Ecology methods” (EBIO 6100) in Spring 2021 (Instructor of record). During this course, I led students through a myriad of biostatical approaches in community ecology including multivariate analyses (ordination and factor analyses), and Joint species distribution modeling and developed R modules where students could apply these techniques to their own data. I used some of my own publications to showcase different examples of how these methods could be applied to diverse ecological datasets including plant and soil microbial community data including DNA sequencing data (Collins et al. 2016, 2018, 2020). Students from this course gave feedback that I was “able to take a very challenging topic (joint species distribution models) and make it approachable to someone with little experience.”
Pedagogical training
I am committed to pedagogical training in best practices for creating effective lesson plans, enhancing experiential learning and promoting equity, diversity, and inclusion in the classroom. Most recently, I completed the Postdoctoral Instructional Skills Workshop (ISW), which is a 4-day workshop that focuses on the theory and practice of evidence-based teaching techniques through the Centre for the Integration of Research, Teaching and Learning (CIRTL) at UBC. I gained experience inviting and confirming learning, dealing with challenging classroom scenarios, conducting formative assessments, using active learning strategies, and understanding and helping to remove barriers to learning for disadvantaged or historically marginalized groups. As a PhD student, I took a 10-week course on “Teaching Biology at the College level.” This course was transformational and changed the way I viewed teaching from a purely instructor-led to a peer-led and group learning environment. We focused on active learning strategies while completing weekly self-assessments on our effectiveness using these strategies with our students.
Additional trainings I have received include: a 1) CIRTL workshop on supporting neurodivergent students in the classroom, 2) Teaching webinar on “Adapting Your Research for Undergraduate Education” and 3) Online panel on “Cultivating Inclusion in the Classroom.” In these trainings, I have learned important strategies to increase equity in the classroom for all students including strengths-based learning and universal design for learning (UDL) approaches. I aim to make undergraduate participation in research more accessible, engaging and aligned with course material as well as to create relationship-centered and community learning focused classroom environments. Overall, I bring my personal experiences, training and commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion to my classrooms, serving as an ally and outspoken advocate for all students.