Teaching philosphy

​Today’s students are increasingly separated from nature, with minimal understanding, experience, skills, and confidence working in natural settings. Without an ability to understand and appreciate the natural processes and recourses needed to maintain biodiversity, feed a growing population, and enhance human well-being, our students will be unprepared to tackle their generation’s most pressing issues. Our students are awash in scientific information, but the challenge is to teach them to comprehend and synthesize this information, foster critical thinking skills, and apply that knowledge to novel situations. Finally, as the spread of information has accelerated the process of globalization, we are increasingly connected to economic, social, and political activity outside of our borders. To thrive in this new reality, our students must be able to work effectively in a cross-cultural and global environment. ​

To address these challenges, we believe it is critical to engage students in natural setting, foster active learning and incorporate field activities into our classes. To promote problem solving and engagement, we often use a flipped classroom approach and emphasize experiential learning techniques. To enhance students’ cultural intelligence, we created and continue to lead a study abroad classes to Eswatini and South Africa. Additionally, we have run intensive undergraduate research programs (NSF funded) that pair students with African researchers. Today more than ever we also believe that successful instruction necessitates dynamic teachers. As teachers, we continually adapt and change to our students’ needs, technological advances, job opportunities, and political and social realities.