Teaching

Teaching Assistantships

at North Carolina State University

Spring 2020 – Fall 2021 | BIT 495/595 Genome Engineering: CRISPR Technology

Fall 2017, 2020, 2021 | AEC 441/442/592 Biology of Fishes

Guest Lectures

at North Carolina State University

Fall 2020 | BIT 100, Current Topics in Biotechnology: Basics of CRISPR and RNAi

Fall 2018, 2021 | AEC441/592, Biology of Fishes: Diversity of Fishes and Systematics

Published Course Content

Samsa L.A., Andersen, L.K., Groth, A.M., and Goller, C.C. 2020. CRISPR/Cas9 Guide RNA Design In Silico Activity. CourseSource. https://doi.org/10.24918/cs.2020.46

Training

Preparing the Professoriate

Member of the Preparing the Professoriate (PTP) 2020-2021 cohort.

PTP is a nationally recognized program designed to give exceptional doctoral students and postdoctoral scholars an immersive mentoring, teaching, and future faculty preparation experience. The PTP program provides fellows with a hands-on teaching opportunity under the direction of a distinguished faculty mentor recognized for their teaching skills. For more information on the PTP program offered by NCSU, see: https://grad.ncsu.edu/professional-development/career-support/ptp/.

PTP Mentors: Dr. Arnab Sengupta, NCSU Biotechnology Program & Dr. Russell J. Borski, NCSU College of Sciences

Teaching and Communication Certificate

Working towards completing the Teaching and Communication Certificate program offered by NCSU.

The Teaching and Communication Certificate (TCC) program was designed to increase accessibility, flexibility, and transferability of teaching and communication training for all graduate students and postdocs at NC State. The offering of workshops that can be completed towards this certificate have been designed to emphasize the diverse audiences that advanced degree holders will face in the workplace, from undergraduate students, to industry partners, to government agencies, to the general public. Teaching, in this context, means communicating complex ideas clearly and persuasively, tailoring your message to meet the needs of your audience. For more information on the TCC program offered by NCSU, see: https://grad.ncsu.edu/professional-development/teaching-support/teaching-programs/.

Completed Workshops:

  • Accessibility in the Classroom (12 hours, self-paced) – A self-paced program to provide an introduction to accessibility and practical methods for incorporating multiple accessibility techniques into online, blended, and face-to-face classrooms. 
  • How to Engage with Diverse Learners (3 hours, 2 sessions) – A two-part workshop to explore how universal design for learning can be used to engage diverse learners. Session activities included discussing concrete strategies to motivate students that approach tasks in different ways and receiving feedback on activities designed by each participant relevant to the course(s) they teach.
  • Communication Strategies for Teaching & Beyond (28+ hours, 14 sessions) – Communicating about your area of specialization involves so much more than content expertise and a captive audience. In this development series, we will explore tools and strategies to help you communicate more effectively with students, specialists, and the public alike. Topics will include motivation and development models, inclusive learning environments, the debate around teaching and learning styles, visual communication and multimodality, and more.
  • Google Assignments (1.5 hours, 1 session) – A workshop to learn how to collect assignments and give feedback by integrating Google Workspace for Education’s collaboration capabilities into learning workflows. Google Assignments handles all the sharing of Google files (passing viewing and editing rights back and forth between instructor and student) and records grades in the Moodle gradebook.
  • Best Practices for Designing your Moodle Course (1.5 hours, 1 session) – A workshop to discuss the best ways to organize and present course content on Moodle. Session activities included discussing the best practices for achieving instructional goals for teaching with Moodle for online, blended, and face-to-face courses.
  • How to Manage Conflict in the Classroom (3 hours, 2 sessions) – A two-part workshop to discuss strategies for managing conflict in the classroom. Session activities included examining various approaches to preventative and reactive conflict management using real-life examples and role-play of scenarios to practice assertive conflict management.
  • How to Use Learning Outcomes (3 hours, 2 sessions) – A two-part workshop to go beyond just formulating learning outcomes by training attendees to use backward course design concepts to develop outcomes that can be used as planning and assessment tools. Attendees then share an activity and assessment sequence that they’ve developed from a specific learning outcome.
  • How to Process your Course Evaluations (2 hours, 2 sessions) – A two-part workshop to consider best practices for reading, analyzing, and using the data from your course evaluations. Session activities included discussing how course evaluations can be designed to work for instructors, so that they support reflective teaching practice and evidence of effective teaching in job materials.
  • How to Avoid Death by PowerPoint (3 hours, 2 sessions) – A two-part workshop to explore strategies for making PowerPoint slides more visually engaging and interactive. Session activities included analyzing effective and ineffective forms of visual communication and receiving feedback on slides presented by each participant.
  • How to Deliver a Job Talk (2 hours, 2 sessions) – A two-part workshop to explore strategies for delivering a compelling, accessible academic job talk. Session activities included discussing the purpose of job talks based upon the position and intended audience and completing exercises to help participants pitch their research to an interdisciplinary audience. 
  • Question, Persuade, & Refer (QPR) (2 hours, 1 session) – A workshop intended to teach individuals who have contact with students (e.g., faculty, staff, friends) how to recognize the warning signs of suicide  including verbal, behavioral, and situational clues. The workshop provides guidelines on to how to question a person about suicidal thoughts, persuade them to get help, and refer the person for help.
  • New TA Workshop (7 hours, 1 session) – A workshop providing a basic overview of best practices in teaching and related topics, and intended to connect participants to resources that they can draw on in the future.
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