Teaching

One of the great perks of astronomy is that it's a wonderful vehicle for getting students excited about science. Teaching science is something which is very important to me and something I take great satisfaction in trying to do well.

At UCLA, I co-taught for two years the introductory astrophysics course for majors, Astro 81, with Prof. Andrea Ghez.

• As part of my broader impacts work as an NSF Astronomy & Astrophysics Postdoctoral Fellow, I revised the curriculum for this class and developed new educational materials following modern learner-centered principles of science education. ("Think-Pair-Share" questions, online activities, reading guides, and more.)

  The results of this effort are summarized in this poster from the 2009 AAS meeting and an article in the June 2010 AAS Education Newsletter, Spark. If you're interested in getting copies of any of my materials, please let me know!

At Berkeley, I was a teaching assistant for the following courses:

• Astro 122
  The Undergrad Infrared Laboratory, with James Graham in Fall 2004.
• Astro 7a
       Fall 2001, with Hy Spinrad. I was head TA for this higher-level undergraduate course. See my Astro 7 page here.
• Astro 10
       Gibor Basri's Spring 2001 Astronomy 10 class. See my Astro 10 page here.
• Astro 10
       Don Goldsmith's fall 2001 Astro 10 class.

I've twice attended the CFAO's Professional Development Workshop on Inquiry-based teaching techniques. Highly recommended!

I wrote a statement of my teaching philosophy during the Teaching Astronomy seminar I took with Bryan Mendez during fall 2000. There are a few things I'd say differently now, but by and large I stand by this.