TEACHING AND MENTORING
As a passionate educator, I take great pride in every course I teach. While the subject matters may vary between classes, my ultimate goal is to provide students with an active, engaging learning environment and ensure students understand key concepts. I aim for students to develop critical thinking skills that can be applied to other courses, as well as life outside of the classroom.
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
Below you will find overall descriptions of the courses I have taught as primary instructor, as well as courses I have served as teaching assistant. If you are interested in viewing any materials that are not shown here, please feel free to email me! I am happy to discuss any of my experiences in greater detail, and to share activities and demonstrations that have worked well for me.
​
For each course below, you will find:
-
Course title
-
Course description
-
Sample syllabi, if applicable
​
At the bottom of the page, you will find my Future Teaching Interests.
COGNITION (PSYC 3030, Instructor at LSU)
This purpose of this course is to give students an overview of cognitive psychology. In this class, we examine the theory and data behind a variety of cognitive phenomena, including (but not limited to) attention, memory, pattern recognition, categorization, language, and thought. Throughout the course, we examine evidence from both classic and modern experiments to give students experience interpreting, understanding, and applying scientific findings to everyday experiences. Students in this course are required to engage in more small-group activities, discussion, and/or demonstrations, and they must also submit research papers over the course of the semester.
​
As instructor of record, my primary responsibilities included creating and administering lectures, activities, and exams. I was also responsible for all graded material, and provided students with detailed, personalized feedback about writing assignments.
INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY (PSYC 2000, Instructor at LSU)
Introduction to Psychology (PSYC 2000) is a general education course. The goal of this course is to give students a broad understanding in psychology and its various subfields. The primary objectives are to give students a general understanding of what psychology is, and to explore psychological science. Over the course of the semester, my goal is for students to be able to see psychological principles at work in their everyday life, and to be able to explain them at both basic and complex levels. Throughout the class, we explore various psychological theories and principles, covering topics ranging from human memory, attention, and perception, to psychological disorders and therapies.
As instructor of record, my primary responsibilities were to create and deliver lectures, grade coursework, and meet with students as necessary. Because this is a lower-division course, many students are freshman and have never been exposed to psychological science before, so my goal is to ensure that students, at minimum, are interested in psychology at the end of the course!
NEUROPSYCHOLOGY (Instructor for DUKE TIP)
Neuropsychology offered by the Duke Talent Identification Program (Duke TIP) is a 3-week, intensive course designed to give advanced high school students exposure to undergraduate-level material. Duke TIP Neuropsychology emphasizes the important role of biology in human behavior and psychological processes. The course is designed to provide students with a deeper understanding of the biological bases of behavior, with a special focus on the role of the central nervous system. Course content covers topics such as neuroanatomy, sensation and perception, movement, consciousness, learning and memory, and neurological disorders.
​
As Instructor, I was responsible for overseeing all course content and activities for 20 high school students, ranging in age from 13-17. The course took place over a three-week period, during which I supervised, lectured, and provided activities, discussions, demonstrations, and group work, for both a morning and afternoon session. Although no graded work is administered, students receive individualized feedback at the end of the course, and parent-teacher conferences take place on the final day of the session.
STATISTICS FOR THE BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES (PSYC 2016, Teaching Assistant at LSU)
This is a required course for all Psychology majors that introduces students to descriptive and inferential statistics as they are used in psychological research. Students engage in both conceptual and computation coursework, designed to provide the foundation for the Research Methods course (PSYC 2017) that follows. Students attend both lecture and lab sessions, with lab sessions taught by course TAs. During lab sessions, students work directly with statistical programs (SPSS) and engage in demonstrations designed to replicate data from published psychological experiments that can then be analyzed as a group.
​
As a Teaching Assistant for this course, I was responsible for a subset of the total enrolled students. In each semester, I taught approximately 20 students during lab sessions, and was responsible for all graded labwork and homework assignments. Each lab session began with a short review lecture intended to recap class material and provide sample SPSS outputs. After creating or compiling data, students ran statistical analyses while under supervision and ultimately turned in labwork before being dismissed.
​
Because I was not Instructor of Record for this course, the syllabus is available upon request.
PHYSIOLOGICAL PSYCHOLOGY (PSYC 4034, Teaching Assistant at LSU)
This is an upper-division course designed to give students a deeper understanding of the biological basis of human behavior. Students learn the basic components and functions of the nervous system, and how the brain and body interact to produce higher-order cognition. The course emphasizes both biological processes and neuroscience. Students learn both the structure and function of the nervous system, as well as the biological basis for behaviors ranging from memory and attention to emotions, language, and neurological disorders.
​
As Teaching Assistant for this course, my primary responsibilities included attending lectures, answering student questions during office hours and over email, and grading coursework. I also gave a guest lecture during which I provided a review of the underlying biology of several neurological disorders.
​
Because I was not Instructor of Record for this course, the syllabus is available upon request.
MENTORED RESEARCH EXPERIENCE (PSYC 4999, Graduate Student Mentor at LSU)
Undergraduate students at LSU can take a hands-on, research experience course designed to give them additional experience working on psychological research. In our lab, students enrolled in PSYC 4999 work directly with graduate students, attend biweekly to monthly meetings in which research is discussed, and produce either a final paper or presentation framed around a research project being conducted in the lab. As of Spring 2019, we have started to offer our students a new project option: They will work with a graduate student mentor on a paper aiming to make scientific findings accessible to young audiences (check out Frontiers for Young Minds!). Our goal is to not only help students practice their writing and critical thinking skills, but to encourage them to consider how we might make theoretical research relevant to a broader audience.
​
As a Graduate Supervisor, I am responsible for assisting with training research assistants and have supervised training for two different eye-trackers (currently the EyeLink 1000+). Supervised students attend meetings with their graduate supervisor, during which we discuss research articles and cover a single project in the lab in depth. Students then choose to write a research report or give a conference-style research presentation about their chosen project, which is also supervised by the graduate student associated with the project. Alternatively, students can choose to write a research paper about a core concept in Psychology (for example, this article discusses searching through our visual environment), with the ultimate goal of submitting their writing for publication.
​
As of Spring 2019, 30 students have been supervised.
The syllabus below is current as of Spring 2019.
FUTURE TEACHING INTERESTS
I am very passionate about teaching, and one of my primary goals is to teach in the future. Based on my past teaching experiences and my research focus, I am interested in teaching the following courses: Introductory Psychology, Learning and Memory, Cognition, Psychological Research Methods, Introductory Psychological Statistics, Sensation and Perception, and an introductory course on Physiological Psychology or Neuropsychology. Although I have not served as Instructor of Record for every one one of these courses in the past, I am highly confident in my ability to create a relevant and engaging course based on these topics. I am also interested in exploring courses not listed above, as I am interested in many aspects of cognition and would enjoy the opportunity to learn about and teach other material.
​
In addition to undergraduate courses, I am also interested in teaching an upper-division or graduate-level seminar focused on more specific topics. Given my research interests, I would enjoy the opportunity to teach a course focused on human face perception, specifically the challenges associated with accurate face perception. I am also interested in teaching a course framed around eye-tracking methodologies, as covert measures of cognition can provide additional avenues of investigation that may be otherwise overlooked.
​
I believe teaching is a fundamental part of an academic career, and I look forward to the opportunity to expand my teaching repertoire. If you are interested in viewing any sample materials, I am happy to share assignments, in-class activities, lectures, or other materials at your request.
Please see the link below to email me directly, and I am excited to talk about teaching opportunities!