Biography

I'm interested in integrating active learning approaches into my undergraduate courses and in teaching skills in scientific communication. My field-and-lab based molecular ecology course at UCSC provides students an authentic research experience that spans project design, field collection, DNA extraction and analysis, and presentation of results. The field project focuses on inferring barriers to gene flow in the California vole, which is found on surrounding UC and campus Reserves. I also teach a field "super" course that, after a quarter of preparatory coursework and training, takes undergraduates on a three-week camping trip to the Canadian and Alaskan Arctic, teaching skills in experimental design while exploring the impacts of environmental change and humans on arctic ecosystems. I'm also a founding faculty member of the CALeDNA citizen science project (http://www.ucedna.com/), which aims to recruit students of all experience levels into STEM fields by providing authentic research opportunities very early in their undergraduate careers.