I brought environmental education and citizen science to low-resource schools in Tucson, AZ as program coordinator of the University of Arizona’s Supporting Environmental Education & Communities (SEEC) Program. In this position, I develop curriculum and help students and teachers to engage in meaningful participatory environmental research. And with students ranging from kindergarten to 12th grade, my science communication skills get quite a workout!

From 2016-2018 I was a lecturer with the Princeton Writing Program, where I taught a science-infused writing seminar I designed entitled “Sensory Communication.” In this course, my students wrote about the theories and complexities of animal communication systems, made philosophical arguments about human pheromones, and constructed research papers that targeted an intersection of human sensory communication and culture.

Previously, I was a teaching assistant at the UConn Writing Center, where I acted as Assistant Director. In this position I trained tutors, led university-wide personal statement workshops, and worked one-on-one with students at any stage of the writing process — from grappling with an essay prompt to revising a draft. As a Writing Center tutor, I used a nondirective teaching model to allow student writers to analyze and critique their own writing.

I have also been a TA for UConn Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Department’s Limnology class, teaching upper-level students about the science of fresh water in both the lab and field. I worked with each student on individual research projects and helped assess final project grades.

I have taught multiple semesters of General Biology labs for non-biology majors. Working with non-majors, primarily freshmen, gave me an early start on explaining scientific concepts to non-scientists. And I can’t think of anything not to like about teaching a roomful of eighteen-year-olds how to dissect an eyeball.