In 2017, I applied and was selected to be a WISCIENCE Scientific Teaching Fellow. I pursued this opportunity to learn how to teach and gain a hands-on teaching experience with a cohort of others wanting the same experience. While I had the opportunity to TA a course at the beginning of my second year in grad school, I had felt that I had yet to learn proper teaching methodology and strived to gain more experiences. As a Scientific Teaching Fellow I had the chance able to apply the techniques heard about in the scientific literature, such as active learning strategies, flipped classrooms, think-pair-share and more. I also learned the value of having a collaborative cohort. We co-developed and co-taught a 100+ person course called Exploring Biology in a technology-based space, which was a very challenging experience. It was a great experience to go through that together as a group and reflect on our experiences to make us all better educators. In addition to the cohort, we also had a director of the fellows that provided a mentored approach to our teaching. Not only did she support us, but guided us through challenging situations that came up during the course of the semester and provided us feedback about our teaching strengths and potential room for improvement.
Here are pieces that reflect my teaching experience throughout the course:
An engaging activity paired with an instructional syllabus: Exploring Biology Syllabus
Planning for evidence-based strategies and lessons learned: Exploring Biology Lesson Plan
Growing as an educator: Exploring Biology Reflections and Summary of Teaching Evaluations and Reflection
Here are pieces that reflect my teaching experience throughout the course:
An engaging activity paired with an instructional syllabus: Exploring Biology Syllabus
Planning for evidence-based strategies and lessons learned: Exploring Biology Lesson Plan
Growing as an educator: Exploring Biology Reflections and Summary of Teaching Evaluations and Reflection