Teaching
Table of Contents
Documentation of Teaching
Co-Instructor, Understanding Parkinson’s Through the Lens of Neuroscience (2020)
Baltimore Underground Science Space (BUGSS), Baltimore, MD
Class Size: 13
- Developed content and activities for an online course open to a general audience
Instructor, Genes to Society: Nervous System and Special Senses Labs (2020)
Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD
Class Size: 25
- Led Neuroanatomy, General and Special Sensory & Motor System labs (online via Zoom). The course involved a flipped classroom design
- Each synchronous session began with a short quiz based on the content assigned for asynchronous learning, followed by a review of the content, as well as team-based exercises and case solving in breakout rooms
Teaching Fellow, CHE 345: Biochemistry of Gene Expression (2016)
Goucher College, Center for Natural Sciences, Baltimore, MD
Class Size: 13
- Prepared and led three class sessions on Post-transcriptional Gene Regulation (Parts I and II) and How to Read a Scientific Paper.
- Incorporated resources other than slides with text and images (eg. used videos to explain Gene Silencing by MicroRNAs and the Ubiquitin Protease System.
- Led four journal club-style paper discussions that were central to each unit of the course.
- Designed assignments (with rubrics) based on these papers, accumulated relevant learning resources and monitored student performance on Goucher’s Campus Pack Wiki, a collaborative space where multiple authors can create and contribute to one or more web pages that are linked together.
- Prepared questions and rubrics for final exams and graded all assignments and exams along with the lead instructor.
- Held weekly office hours.
An interview about my experience as a Collaborative Teaching Fellow can be found here: https://cer.jhu.edu/teaching-academy/ctf/overview
Guest Lecturer, PSY 202: Human Learning and Memory (2016)
Goucher College, Baltimore, MD
Class Size: 17
- Prepared and led a class session on Classical Conditioning.
- Began the session with ‘KCA (knowledge, connection, application) Assessment’, consisting of questions based on pre-class assignments, as formative assessment of students' learning level.
- Delivered the content using slides, videos, graphics and whiteboard illustrations.
- Ended the class session with an active learning exercise (Comic Strip Activity)
Instructor, Medical Neuroscience Discussion Group (2015)
University of Maryland School of Medicine
Class Group Size: 13
- Created and led a multi-session discussion group for first year medical students entitled, ‘Parkinson’s disease – a focus on non-motor symptoms’. Students were required to read relevant scientific papers assigned to them and lead presentations.They were graded on the basis of their performance and participation.
Description of the Discussion Group Topic: Parkinson’s disease – a focus on non-motor symptoms
The hallmark symptoms of Parkinson’s disease (PD) include tremor, bradykinesia, rigidity and loss of balance. However, a relatively wide range of non-motor symptoms are often seen over time, in patients, along with the motor symptoms. These symptoms include psychiatric disturbances (mood disorders, psychosis, cognitive dysfunction and impulse control disorders), sleep disturbances, gastrointestinal complications and pain. We will review possible causes, brain areas and circuitry involved in the manifestation of the psychiatric symptoms and discuss existing treatment options. As one may expect, these symptoms have a huge impact on the quality of a patient’s life and warrant as much clinical and preclinical attention as the motor symptomatology associated with PD.
Introductory Slides and Assigned Papers:
Workshops Conducted
Active Learning - Tools and Activities to Engage Your Students (2019)
Created content for and co-led the Pizza and Pedagogy workshop for graduate students and postdoctoral fellows organized by the Johns Hopkins University Teaching Academy
Slides:
Used Pear Deck to make the session engaging and interactive.
Active Learning Workshop (2019)
Created content for and co-led a workshop for faculty members of the Neuroscience Department at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
Slides:
Reproducibility for Everyone (2019)
Organized a Professional Development Workshop at the Society for Neuroscience Annual Meeting that was attended by ~ 250 participants (faculty members, graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, technicians and non-academic members)
Description of the Workshop: Many new tools have been created to address barriers to reproducibility, but how do you know which ones to use? This workshop breaks down workflows and tools to help you improve the reproducibility of your work and covers several themes, such as data management, organization and documentation (electronic lab notebooks), protocol, reagent and data sharing, bioinformatics tools, data visualization and analysis. You will come away with ideas to implement in your lab as well as ideas for enhancing reproducibility more broadly. You will also learn a bit about sample sizes and educational programs that focus on enhancing reproducibility from the invited panelists, Drs. Robert Calin-Jageman and Gundula Bosch.
Recording: https://neuronline.sfn.org/scientific-research/advice-for-choosing-the-right-reproducibility-tools
Slides:
Additional Resources and more about Repro4Everyone: https://www.repro4everyone.org/
How to Critically Read Scientific Literature (2019)
Created content for and led a workshop for the Johns Hopkins Neuroscience Summer Undergraduate Lunch Series
Slides:
Selected Quote from Students' Feedback: “I liked how much of a discussion it was, and I liked how she presented different quotes from all different types of people in the field on how they approach (and can be intimidated by) scientific papers. It was really encouraging! Maybe she could have included an example of a scientific paper and we could go through it together? It was still very helpful the way she did it - that's just a suggestion.”
Drosofun (2007)
Conducted a workshop on Drosophila Functional Genomics, to screen RNAi fly lines for behavioral deficits in learning, for undergraduates at Sophia College for Women, India.
Zoological Microtechniques: Microtomy and Cryostat Sectioning (2006)
Conducted a hands-on workshop for Masters-level students at Sophia College for Women, India.
Pedagogical Workshops, Courses and Conferences Attended
Johns Hopkins Preparing Future Faculty Teaching Academy Program
Workshops
Johns Hopkins Teaching Institute (2020)
Organized by the Johns Hopkins Teaching Academy, Baltimore, MD A 4-day online format offered to doctoral students and post-doctoral fellows to advance the development of university-level educators by enhancing classroom teaching skills.
- Teaching as Scholarship & Backwards Design
- Assessment of Student Learning
- Active Learning
- Inclusive Classrooms
- Grading & Rubrics
- Course Planning and the First Day
3rd Annual Summer Institute for Education Equity and Justice (2020)
Virtual Conference Organized by American University School of Education, Washington, DC
- Teaching Young Women of Color: Antiracist Practices and Strategies
Teaching with Technology (2019)
Organized by CIRTL Network
Pizza & Pedagogy (2019)
Organized by the Johns Hopkins Teaching Academy, Baltimore, MD
- Science of Learning
- Improv for Teaching
Teaching Topics and Tapas (2016-17)
Organized by the Johns Hopkins Teaching Academy, Baltimore, MD
- Active Learning I and II
- Writing Effective Learning Objectives
- Developing Your Own Personal Teaching Style
College Science Teaching Seminars (2016)
Organized by Cindy Ghent from Towson University, Baltimore, MD
- How to make lecture effective: Using problem solving, case study, dilemmas, problem sets, and discussions to facilitate student learning
- Evaluating student learning (and your teaching): An introduction to classroom assessment
- The science of learning and the learning of science: A discussion of learning theories and applications
Courses
Equity in STEM for All Genders (2019)
CIRTL Network (Online)
Teaching at the University Level (2017)
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD
Introduction to the Science of Teaching (2012)
UT Health San Antonio, TX
Conferences
Society for the Advancement of Biology Education Research Virtual National Meeting (2020)
Gordon Research Seminar and Conference on Undergraduate Biology Education Research (2019)
Presented a Poster about my Teaching-as-Research Project
American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Annual Meeting (2019)
Judge for Brain and Behavior e-Posters presented by full-time students enrolled in undergraduate, graduate or doctoral degree programs
Teaching-as-Research Fellowship (2018-19)
Project Abstract: Review sessions during undergraduate biology courses often involve revisiting material covered during several hour-long lectures. Depending on the course content, one has to often choose between going over most of the material superficially or emphasizing and discussing selected, key topics. In addition, it can be challenging to make the session interactive, especially with large class sizes.
As a Teaching-as-Research (TAR) Fellow, I aimed to identify and employ a strategy during a mid-course review session held before an exam that would be fast-paced, comprehensive, not 'teaching to the test', and involving student engagement. A secondary aim was to assess its effectiveness in enhancing student engagement and exam performance. Here I describe the use of a Defining Features Matrix for reviewing basic concepts of Psychopharmacology (Pharmacokinetics and Pharmacodynamics), discuss the method of its implementation in a class of over 50 students, and highlight some observations and potential implications.
Course: Psychopharmacology
Class Size: 75
Defining Features Matrix Activity:
