Insect Agroecology Lab
@ West Virginia University
Teaching
Current Classes
ENTO 404 - Principles of Entomology
Introductory entomology course focusing on teaching insect ID, insect physiology and insect ecology, highlighting relevance to pest management. Students complete an insect collection, perform experiments with insects, and learn the principles of IPM.
Ento 450 - Insect Ecology
Insect Ecology is a deeper dive into the interactions between insects and other organisms including their predators, host plants, and members of their own species. In this course, we also emphasize the interactions between insects and humans in the Anthropocene. Students are expected to read and present on relevant scientific papers, write a farm pest management plan, and a news article about insects. Prerequisite: ENTO 404
ANRD 593 - Data analysis for Agricultural and Natural Sciences
An applied stats class for first and second year graduate students in the Davis college focused on the practical application of statistics for agricultural and natural science data sets. Students will learn to manage data and analyze univariate data using ANOVA, mixed models, and generalized linear models (GLM).
Teaching Philosophy
In the information age, I believe that it is our job as educators to teach our students the skills to find, evaluate and transmit information. My goal is to provide a toolkit that students can continue to use long after they have finished a course. I hope to make the classes I teach as useful to students as possible, by integrating skills learned through experience and memorization with exposure to new resources. Students also practice their critical thinking by researching and evaluating resources, supported by knowledge learned in class. Further, I aim to keep students engaged in class using active learning techniques, and use their feedback to constantly improve the class.
I am passionate about teaching because I want to support students, aid them in developing useful skills, and help them hone their critical thinking. To do this, I think it is important to be responsive to students' needs by being clear what a class will cover, asking students what they hope to gain from a course on day one, and responding to mid-semester feedback so that students can achieve their personal goals. I set goals for each class period that are clear to students to help guide study.