Teaching
At UCLA, I'm working on my Graduate Certificate in Writing Pedagogy. As part of this, I've been a teaching fellow with the Freshman Clusters program, and will be teaching a seminar I've developed this spring (now, for the 2nd time!) called "Astrobiology in Science Journalism." I am also involved in the CIRTL STAR program, which focuses on evidence-based pedagogy and teaching as research, and UCLA's Entering Mentoring Training.
I have also developed and taught TA Training workshops for UCLA's CAT (Center for Advancement of Teaching), and led my department's TA training course for first year grad students (Physics 495) as well as the TA training course for the Clusters (EC 495).
Next year, I'll be developing and teaching a new course called "Hands-On Exoplanet Astronomy" as part of UCLA's Collegium of University Teaching Fellows — this will be a Physics and Astronomy GE course that will also (hopefully) fulfill students' writing requirement!
List of courses taught:
UCLA Cluster 70 Seminar (Astrobiology in Science Journalism) Lead instructor / instructor-of-record — Spring 2022
UCLA English Composition 495M/N (TA Training, Clusters Program) — Fall 2021/Winter 2022
UCLA Cluster 70 Seminar (Astrobiology in Science Journalism) Lead instructor / instructor-of-record — Spring 2021
UCLA Cluster 70 (Evolution of Life and the Universe) — Fall 2020/Winter 2021
UCLA Physics 495 (TA Training, Physics and Astronomy) — Fall 2019
UCLA Astronomy 5 (Life in the Universe) — Spring 2019
UCLA Astronomy 3 (Nature of the Universe) — Winter 2019
UCLA Physics 5AL (Physics for Life Sciences) — Fall 2018
I have also developed and taught TA Training workshops for UCLA's CAT (Center for Advancement of Teaching), and led my department's TA training course for first year grad students (Physics 495) as well as the TA training course for the Clusters (EC 495).
Next year, I'll be developing and teaching a new course called "Hands-On Exoplanet Astronomy" as part of UCLA's Collegium of University Teaching Fellows — this will be a Physics and Astronomy GE course that will also (hopefully) fulfill students' writing requirement!
List of courses taught:
UCLA Cluster 70 Seminar (Astrobiology in Science Journalism) Lead instructor / instructor-of-record — Spring 2022
UCLA English Composition 495M/N (TA Training, Clusters Program) — Fall 2021/Winter 2022
UCLA Cluster 70 Seminar (Astrobiology in Science Journalism) Lead instructor / instructor-of-record — Spring 2021
UCLA Cluster 70 (Evolution of Life and the Universe) — Fall 2020/Winter 2021
UCLA Physics 495 (TA Training, Physics and Astronomy) — Fall 2019
UCLA Astronomy 5 (Life in the Universe) — Spring 2019
UCLA Astronomy 3 (Nature of the Universe) — Winter 2019
UCLA Physics 5AL (Physics for Life Sciences) — Fall 2018
Education Research
In addition to astronomy research, I'm interested in education research — taking a scientific, critical perspective on our pedagogy and working to find the most effective teaching methods. There's so much we still have to learn about how students learn, and how our pedagogical practices affect them.
As part of UCLA CIRTL's STAR program, I'm currently working on my Teaching as Research (TAR) project, investigating how popular science writing instruction influences general education (GE) students' attitudes towards STEM.
I am also on Astrobites' Education Committee, and am leading a study to quantitatively investigate the efficacy of Astrobites-based lesson plans in the classroom. You can check out our white paper about Astrobites for the Astro2020 decadal survey here.
Results from these studies hopefully coming soon!
As part of UCLA CIRTL's STAR program, I'm currently working on my Teaching as Research (TAR) project, investigating how popular science writing instruction influences general education (GE) students' attitudes towards STEM.
I am also on Astrobites' Education Committee, and am leading a study to quantitatively investigate the efficacy of Astrobites-based lesson plans in the classroom. You can check out our white paper about Astrobites for the Astro2020 decadal survey here.
Results from these studies hopefully coming soon!
Public Outreach and Volunteering
UCLA Planetarium
As a graduate student at UCLA, I volunteer with Astronomy Live!, a program that brings science demonstrations, including a mobile planetarium, to underserved schools in the Los Angeles area. I also give planetarium shows, with night sky tours and science talks, for the weekly general public shows and for private school groups. Since 2019, I've also been working as a coordinator for the UCLA Planetarium.
Astrobites
I'm a regular writer for Astrobites, which presents daily paper summaries meant to be accessible to undergraduates interested in science. You can check out all my articles here. I've also written many Beyond bites, covering accessibility and equity in astronomy, the dangers of reopening universities during the COVID-19 Pandemic, and how to use Twitter in your scientific career!
ComSciCon
After attending the 2019 ComSciCon flagship, I served on the 2020 Flagship Program Organizing Committee (and lead a workshop on using zines for science!) and am now organizing the inaugural ComSciCon Los Angeles chapter. More info on this effort coming soon!
Science Olympiad Coaching
When I was in high school, I loved competing in Science Olympiad, and it's how I started learning about astronomy. For a few years, I gave back by serving as a coach in the Astronomy (Division C) and Solar System (Division B) events for the teams at Canyon High School and El Rancho Middle School.
Other Outreach Efforts
I love taking part in outreach efforts where I get to directly interact with people - whether that's giving a public talk, writing letters to my Letters to a Pre-Scientist pen pal, talking to my family and friends about what my job is really like, or answering questions from a class through Skype a Scientist.