I have great enthusiasm for teaching and sharing my knowledge to students at all levels and backgrounds. This fall, I am teaching a research projects course on physiology of aquatic vertebrates for senior undergraduate students at the University of San Diego. Each student has their own research project that he or she develops from hypothesis formulation to presenting the results, both orally and in writing.

Last fall, I taught a course that I designed on the physiology of diving vertebrates for Japanese graduate students and postdoctoral fellows in Japan.  The one-week intensive course included both a lecture and lab component.  My teaching experience also includes a course on physiology in extreme environments, an advanced undergraduate physiology course. Drawing from my past teaching experiences, instructor training workshops and outreach activities, I developed the curriculum, the student learning objectives and course content. I used strategies for adapting the course objectives to different learning styles. For example, I incorporated a variety of assignment types to allow students multiple ways to show knowledge. Based on feedback from the students, the course was very successful.  I presented my course design and how it focused on improving student ability to critique primary literature in the APS’s Teaching Section at the 2015 Experimental Biology Conference.

I have had the opportunity to teach a variety of other classes, both as lead instructor and as a teaching assistant. As a Master’s student, I taught a number of Anatomy and Physiology labs. During my Ph.D. program, I was a teaching assistant for a physiology lab. More recently, I have enjoyed teaching several upper level courses. In addition, I took advantage of opportunities to develop my teaching skills during my postdoctoral work. UC Irvine offers workshops each year on teaching skills and strategies.