Teaching and Outreach

Teaching Experience

Current Courses

BIO105: MARINE BIOLOGY, Occidental College
This course is designed for non-majors and will be an introductory survey of marine organisms and their environment. It will cover fishes, invertebrates, mammals, reptiles, and algae. Included will be an investigation of behavior, ecology, adaptations, and environmental relationships to humans. An emphasis will be placed on forms common to California.

BIO369: BIOLOGICAL OCEANOGRAPHY, Occidental College
Biological oceanography will focus on the biology of the open ocean with emphasis placed on relating parameters of the physical-chemical ocean to the distribution and abundance of marine organisms. We will focus on understanding the physical and biological processes of the southern California marine area using field and laboratory techniques.

Previous Experience

MAR 105: INTRODUCTION TO OCEANOGRAPHY (Fall and Spring 2015), Suffolk County Community College
This course focused on life in the oceans against a background of its interaction with the physical, chemical and geological environment. Lectures, laboratory and field trips are employed to explore fundamental properties which underlie oceanic phenomena.

MAR 388: TROPICAL MARINE ECOLOGY (January 2009-2014), Stony Brook University
This travel course to the Discovery Bay Marine Lab in Jamaica is designed to literally immerse students in marine ecology. The course consists of formal lectures, demonstrations and instructor-led field trips and involves snorkeling, SCUBA diving, and underwater photography. Students develop individual research projects requiring field observations and collecting data and write a research proposal and final research papers.

WISE 187: WOMEN IN SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING (Introduction to Research; Spring 2011), Stony Brook University
An introduction to and hands-on experience in doing research in mathematics, engineering, and several science disciplines within a group setting. The students rotate among several research environments: computer science, mathematics, social sciences, natural sciences and engineering. Within each environment they are given background readings, instructed in the problem to be studied, jointly carry out a small experiment related to the problem, and discuss the social implications of the research problem. Students make presentations related to one of the projects in which they participate. Enrollment limited to first-year women in the WISE program.

OCEANOGRAPHY; OCEAN ACIDIFICATION UNIT, Southampton High School (Spring 2014)
Guest lecturer for the ocean acidification unit at a local high school; created a two-week unit exploring acidification using a series of lab experiments and reading assignments.

Mentoring Experience

Graduate Committee Member:
Emily Fox, MS candidate

Honors Thesis Advisor:
Alyssa Stevens

Undergraduate Research Mentor:
Jamie Gay
Sarah White
Kaitlyn O’Toole
Tracey Vlasak
Michelle Lewis
GraceAnne Taylor
Brooke Morrell
Paulina Miczko

High School Research Mentor:
Timothy Squires