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Teaching Philosophy

I view teaching as a highly personalized process, recognizing that each student has unique learning styles and challenges. To maximize learning, I designed lectures and course materials that connect concepts to real-life applications, such as using statistical tools to analyze primary literature and video for introductory biology. My approach integrates knowledge with critical thinking, encouraging students to actively participate and build on their own experiences. I make lectures accessible through audiovisual repositories, allowing students to engage with the material at their own pace while recording comments and questions. I also use extensive CANVAS surveys to help students get engaged and ready for learning evaluations. Each spring, I teach a class of Introduction to Bioinformatics for graduate students in Biology and Biotechnology. This course is designed as a dynamic, hands-on introduction to computer scripting and bioinformatics research. The class emphasizes programming in R, progressing from basics to advanced topics in genetics, protein analyses, phylogenetics, and data mining. I have also included additional instructions into Python and Galaxy developed with my graduate students that are included as coauthors in this GitBook. I continuously update this resource to adapt it in real time to new developments, student feedback, and ever-changing software developments. This class includes as semester-long project, where students analyze real datasets and present their findings in a symposium-style setting, fostering both scientific and professional presentation skills. This learning experience approach not only develops technical competence but also prepares graduate students for collaborative, research-driven environments in their future careers. I am very excited to bring my enthusiasm and commitment to the intellectual growth and maturation of graduate and undergraduate students. I also give special care to students with disabilities by providing attention to their unique needs. My teaching experience includes:

2021 - present (Spring) BIO/BIT 209: Workshop in Applied Bioinformatics using R and Python (Principal Instructor) I am teaching a graduate course in bioinformatics. For the course website, see this link

2017 - present (Fall) Biology 1001: Evolution, Classification, Population Biology and Ecology (Principal Instructor) I am teaching an undergraduate core course on biological diversity, notions of evolutionary biology, taxonomy, and ecology. For the course outline (see PDF)

2015 - Phylogenetic Comparative Methods (Principal Instructor) I taught a full course in the current application of comparative methods to phylogenetic tests of evolutionary/ecological hypotheses for graduate students. 2-3 hr credit course. For the course website, see this link

2013 - 2014 Multivariate Statistics applications on Ecology (Guest lecture) This was a 2 hour-long introduction to advanced multivariate statistics to graduate students with relevant examples for ecological and evolutionary problems.

2008 - 2009 Biostatistics (Graduate Student Instructor) Developed, organized, taught laboratories and experimental designs for senior undergraduates with Biology major.

2007 - 2008 Physiology and Functional Anatomy (Graduate Student Instructor) Organized and taught laboratories for pre-med/pre-nursing undergraduates.

2005 - 2006 Genetics (Graduate Student Instructor) Organized and taught laboratories for Biology major undergraduates.