As human beings we are a species driven mainly by passion, which is usually our motivational engine to pursue a career and our dreams. For me, this has been the case in science and I think it is the most important aspect of mentoring and teaching any STEM field. As a teacher you can influence and guide students to pursue the things that make them passionate. It is my goal to guide and inspire my students to pursue their dreams and the topics that interests them. My general teaching style is student-centered and I used a mixed set of active learning techniques to promote student engagement, independent and critical thinking as well as a safe and collaborative classroom environment.
Currently as St Mary’s College of Maryland I am teaching the following courses:
Microbiomes (BIOL380.03)
The course introduces students to the analyses of microbial communities from environmental samples. Main concepts in microbial ecology are discussed and applied to understand microbial diversity from environmental samples using next-generation sequencing techniques. The course cover topics in DNA extraction, sequencing, phylogenetics, community ecology and multivariate statistical analyses in R. By the end of the course, students should be able to analyze and quantify the community composition of microbes obtained from environmental samples (e.g. soil, water, animal/plant tissues)
Conservation Biology (BIOL380.02)
Conservation biology is a special topics course that introduces key ecological, genetical and socio-economic concepts needed to propose strong management and restoration efforts of natural ecosystems. Students will apply geographic information system (GIS) techniques along with current ecological and genomic approaches used to assess the state of endangerment of species and ecosystems and will learn how to implement this knowledge to craft practical solutions that can promote the conservation and/or restoration of a given biological system. Students will interact with members of state parks and other conservation agencies in the US and Latin America that can provide case-study examples
Plant Physiology and Lab Section (BIOL435-BIOL435L)
Plant physiology is an advanced undergraduate level (4-credit) course that introduces key physiological, morphological, ecological and molecular aspects of how plants adapt to their abiotic and biotic environment and will link these concepts with the current physiological challenges faced by plant populations and crops due to climate change. Course material integrates basic field and laboratory experiments with case studies to demonstrate these concepts.
Genetics and Lab Sections (BIOL270-BIOL270L)
This course is part of the core requirements for the Biology Major at St Mary’s College of Maryland. It covers the fundamental principles underlying heredity and variation. This course begins with a study of the structure, function and replication of the hereditary material, and examines the mechanisms of genetic inheritance and change. We then proceed with a discussion of Mendelian phenotypic and genotypic analysis. Finally, we discuss applications of genetic manipulations in a wide variety of organisms.
Principles of Biology II and Lab Sections (BIOL106 -BIOL106L)
Principles of Biology II (BIOL 106 & the co-requisite BIOL 106L) is the second in the sequence of core courses required for the biology major. This course is intended for biology majors or others with a serious interest in the life sciences and, together with Principles of Biology I (BIOL 105 & BIOL 105L), it provides a foundation for further studies in the biological sciences. The primary objective of Principles of Biology II is to introduce you to life at the organismal level. We will begin with a brief discussion of the principles of evolution and how these principles explain the diversity of life and have influenced our classification of organisms. We will then discuss the origin of life and move to a discussion of the diversity of life on Earth, including the evolutionary relationships among the major groups of organisms. We will integrate a discussion of the relationships between structure and function of the major groups of organisms into our exploration of diversity, focusing on solutions to common problems faced by organisms, from single cells to complex organisms including plants and animals.
Principles of Biology I Lab (BIOL105L)
Principles of Biology I laboratory is a co-requisite for BIOL 105. It is the first in the sequence of core courses required for the biology major.
Collaborative Teaching
Additionally, from time to time I aid in some other courses within the college, such as ART 390 (The Artist Naturalist) with Dr. Sue Johnson. Students in the course draw Acmispon spp as their final projects. Here are some of their pictures:
Other courses:
As part of my Koch-Richarson postdoctoral fellowship at Tulane University I created and designed one course in Plant biology and adaptations for senior undergraduates and graduate students, and one course in Genomics and Bioinformatics for graduate students:
Genomics and Bioinformatics (EBIO 6660)
is a 4 credit course that provides an introduction to the main next-generation sequencing (NGS) techniques currently implemented for the study of ecological and evolutionary processes at the genome level (e.g. genotyping by sequencing, ddRAD, RNAseq, genome association studies) and that have opened the fields of population genomics and phylogenomics. Over the Spring 2017 semester we had three guest lecturers: Dr. Monica Munoz-Torres (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory) who gave us a seminar on how to use Apollo to do genome annotations; Dr. Thomas Hartwig (Carnegie Institution for Science, Standford University) who taught a workshop on RNAseq analyses, and Dr. Candice Lumibao (Tulane University, postdoctoral researcher) taught us how to analyze metagenomic data when obtaining environmental samples.
Plant Biology and Adaptations (EBIO 3591/6591)
is an introduction to the biology of plants, with an emphasis on the aspects of physiology, anatomy, morphology, and ecology that resulted in their successful adaptation and diversification. The course has a lecture and a lab components. During the lab sessions the students obtain hands-on experience in identifying the different groups of plants and the traits that lead to evolutionary success. They also gain experience in obtaining different plant physiological measurements and learn how to estimate the potential distribution of plant species under different climate change scenarios.
Teaching collection for Plant Biology & Adaptations
Over the summer 2017 we prepared a collection of microscope slides showing the different characteristics and structures of plant tissues and groups of algae. This particular set of microscope slides are the key component of the lab sessions of the Plant Bio and Adaptations course where students will be able to understand and visualize the sophisticated cell and tissue structures of plants that have evolved under different environmental conditions. Undergraduates Liana Bethala (left) and Hanna Li (right) volunteered their summer time to help in the microscope collection organization!
