General teaching philosophy 

In my research and teaching I create a welcoming and inclusive learning environment, which includes promoting access and equity for all who seek education. I have a strong commitment to teaching and mentoring students and seek to continue training students in the scientific method and groundbreaking science including data analysis and scientific writing. It is our responsibility to teach compassion and creativity in addition to the scientific fundamentals of ecology and environmental science. I had my first mentoring experiences in the tropical rainforests of Panamá, advising students from the University of Potsdam to perform fieldwork, data entry and analysis. These students worked well together and finished the most daunting tasks with excitement. That experience convinced me to reach for an academic career, as I enjoy mentoring and research. 

My mantra during teaching is to “make a connection” to describe how theory translates to real-world problems. I have found that my students can retain information better when understanding its purpose. However, not all learning strategies work for all individual students. Hence, I like to introduce students to a variety of learning techniques, which include writing exercises, seminars, data processing and analysis, as well as group work and discussions. I think group work can be transformed into a valuable learning experience if tailored to a variety of interests of all different group members.

For my teaching I seek to bring the connection of philosophy and science back into the classroom, as the study of theories, conceptual models, and arguments of which there are many applications in ecology. The philosophy of science teaches valuable lessons about how we define things, starting with the fundamental question “what is life?”. In our technically advanced world, we are often exposed to information overload, which philosophical approaches can help navigate. Incorporating the philosophy of teaching, learning and understanding (i.e., active learning, metacognition) into the curriculum may help students think critically, be mindful about experimental designs, and literature reviews while putting their work into the perspective of other research disciplines[1]. Guest lectures from scientists across disciplines can help make those connections, as well as to think outside of one’s comfort zone.

At the beginning of each semester I will describe my teaching philosophy and strategies, which will involve several writing exercises. My goal is to clearly define expectations and learning outcomes, so that students will get to know my teaching style. This first introduction will also serve to get feedback on certain items in the syllabus. For writing exercises and other projects, I will provide examples of submissions, which will be thoroughly discussed in class before students will start tackling the assignments.

Undergraduate classes

As a graduate student at the University of Alabama, I was involved in teaching four undergraduate laboratory sections Biology 1 and 2, as well as Plant Biology, and an honors Biology 2 course. For Plant Biology laboratory lectures and exercises, I was given sole oversight by my Ph.D. advisor who taught the main lectures. This allowed me to understand the workload involved to prepare and deliver class materials, grade, and mentor students. It also was the class that I enjoyed the most, because I could decide what route I wanted to take it within the bounds of the syllabus. On occasion, I was also given the opportunity to give guest lectures in undergraduate and graduate level classes by my Ph.D. advisor. At the University of Wisconsin, I was able to teach two guest lectures to undergraduate and graduate students, which I truly enjoyed. I was also given the opportunity to co-advise undergraduate and graduate students during a Meteorological Measurements summer class, which covered atmospheric measurement techniques. The class asked for adaptive skills to encourage teamwork and to overcome challenges, which involved fieldwork in harsher environments. The students overcame these challenges and successfully delivered a well-rounded project to the rest of the student body. For undergraduate classes, teaching approaches involve strategies much more widely applicable, as class sizes tend to be larger. Online resources and classroom technology like clicker apps for short quizzes, make for great methods to engage students[2]. Additionally, my class assignments will ask for creative ways, like online video blogs, to express their knowledge, which will help build their critical thinking skills, in addition to manifesting lecture materials.

Graduate students

For graduate level classes I incorporate analytical tools like statistical programming (i.e. R, ArcGIS, etc.) for data analysis, especially big data, as they become more and more prevalent in science. Students could work on projects analyzing publicly available data from repositories like NASA and USGS (satellite data), ICOS/Ameriflux/Fluxnet (eddy covariance) or the US National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON; biological surveys), to design their own research questions or hypotheses. During such classes we will use statistical programming language such as R or Python, geoinformation system tools like QGIS, and soil-plant models like CENTURY, to simulate nutrient cycling in agroecosystems, over DayCent to analyze interactions between agroecosystems, the soil and the atmosphere, over economic models that incorporate farm profits based on management descisions. Utilizing projects that combine measurement techniques, data analysis and writing will foster a more thorough understanding of the lecture topics[3].

If given the opportunity, I would like to teach a graduate level class or summer workshop on “the origins of food production”, which will combine plant evolution (natural and anthropogenic through breeding), plant physiology, as well as agricultural management. Further, I would like to develop a graduate class “the energetics of life” based on my Ph.D. project that focuses on complex systems on Earth and how they dissipate energy and entropy in the context of evolution, adaptation, reproduction and resilience, linking biological and physical processes to energy flow. The class will focus on how humans affect natural processes that can cause imbalances of the energetic flows on Earth, leading to climate change and variations in intensity and frequency of extreme weather events.

Further improvements

Similar to my research interests, I believe that teaching strategies need to be adaptive. Our world is dynamic, diverse and loaded with information. To ensure high quality of teaching and academic success of students, constant adaptation, as well as the exchange of information and resources across different teaching systems is key. To improve my teaching throughout my career I will attend teaching conferences and trainings, such as the “Future for Education Technology Conference”, “Shaping the Future of Higher Education: An Invitation to Lead”, or local conferences. Conferences like these offer advice from educators across disciplines and often include strategies to include digital resources in the curriculum. Encouraging students to foster a healthy relationship with online resources, data and analysis tools will only become more important in the future of higher education. Additionally, as I took part in teaching seminars and workshops, I will continue to do so, but would also like to offer my experience to students and postdocs who are looking to build their teaching skills for their own academic careers.

[1] Laplane, L., Mantovani, P., Adolphs, R., Chang, H., Mantovani, A., McFall-Ngai, M., ... & Pradeu, T. (2019). Opinion: Why science needs philosophy. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 116(10), 3948-3952.

[2] Sung, Y. T., Chang, K. E., & Liu, T. C. (2016). The effects of integrating mobile devices with teaching and learning on students' learning performance: A meta-analysis and research synthesis. Computers & Education, 94, 252-275.

[3] Owens, D. C., Sadler, T. D., Barlow, A. T., & Smith-Walters, C. (2017). Student motivation from and resistance to active learning rooted in essential science practices. Research in Science Education, 1-25.