Early on in my career, I noticed the inextricable links between the freshwater systems I study and human perceptions and behaviors. Human societies have been modifying freshwater systems for hundreds of years: dredging and widening river channels, extracting groundwater through wells, and draining wetlands. I felt that I could not conduct research on freshwater systems without considering management practices, power dynamics, public perceptions, and environmental injustices. This often meant creating partnerships across industries with government officials, restoration practitioners, and park managers. My approach to research also influenced my approach to teaching, whereby I: a) incorporate critical social science dimensions into natural science courses, b) provide students with skills that are marketable outside of academia, and, c) integrate diverse perspectives to address some of the hardest issues we face as a society today (e.g., climate change, freshwater security, biodiversity conservation).

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Incorporating Human-Natural Systems

In 2015, I was hired in my first teaching role as a program assistant at American University (AU) to help run the lab component of a first-year student experiential learning course. I quickly filled the syllabus with labs that crossed industries (academia, non-profit, and government organizations) and fields of study. One of my favorite labs was for our freshwater systems section where we were given a canoe tour of the Anacostia River by the Anacostia Watershed Society, a non-profit organization. Instead of visiting the more popular and easily accessible Potomac River, we journeyed across the city to the Anacostia to not only hear about freshwater nutrient cycling and biodiversity, but also about the environmental injustices felt by surrounding communities as the Potomac River continuously received more funding for restoration year-over-year.

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When I was hired as a teaching assistant at the University of South Florida (USF; a public, R1 institution) as part of my PhD funding, I realized a dramatic shift from the experience I had at AU, a private, liberal arts and R2 institution. To prepare for the Principles of Ecology laboratory course I was assigned to TA, I was given a four-day crash course into lab safety, classroom management, and university policies; however, what I wasn’t given, was the material I was going to teach. Instead, that came week-by-week throughout the semester making me feel unprepared for each class and unable to alter any of the material. I continued to voice concerns about the outdated labs until I was given a graduate assistantship to make changes.

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During this time, I not only updated the way course material was delivered (e.g., incorporated more active learning and authentic assessments), but much of the course content. I added background information for each of the labs that went beyond just defining ecological concepts and, instead, contextualized the data we analyzed within the surrounding socio-environment so that students could make more realistic hypotheses and connect their findings to the appropriate audiences. I further created a new lab that focused on the impacts of climate change on coastal ecological and human communities in Florida. As many students in the course would not be entering academia, this lab gave them information they could use when talking to their families or when voting in local and state elections.

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Identifying Marketable Skills

In addition to crossing disciplinary boundaries, I wanted to ensure students got more than just a review of the lecture content in their labs. I, therefore, began altering the learning objectives to focus on critical thinking, problem solving, and applying the scientific method to generate testable hypotheses, design experiments, collect and analyze data, and communicate findings to a wide audience. I completed a teaching prep course taught by the Academy for Teaching and Learning Excellence at USF, which greatly helped me with “backwards design”, applying a flipped classroom structure, and ensuring my assessments matched-up with my learning objectives.

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While the lab already relied heavily on the use of Excel, I created assignments that utilized different aspects of the program like pivot tables and t-tests. I also created a new lab that incorporated ArcGIS software as a tool that students could learn and market to potential employers. Finally, I created more student presentation assignments thereby improving each students’ ability to both synthesize their work and present it to different audiences (e.g., scientific community, newspaper reporter, family member, elected official). These presentations also included debates that underscored the importance of a) consensus as a key part of the scientific process and b) considering and responding to diverse viewpoints. All the upgrades I designed improved student learning in the course with student feedback across sections becoming increasingly more positive (see here and here for student feedback). The Provost additionally recognized me with an outstanding teaching award for this work.

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Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

A specific focus of my research has been understanding inequality in access to ecosystem services including flood mitigation, water and air quality, and recreation. This type of work requires listening to diverse and previously ignored voices such as those experiencing environmental disasters. By exploring economic and political actors and behaviors interacting with the local environment and creating environmental injustices in the classroom, I can give students who may have experienced some of these injustices an opportunity to further research these topics and explore solutions.

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It is well known that students of color that enroll in STEM degrees often do not graduate with those degrees, and increased faculty interaction and mentorship is a critical step towards increasing retention of diverse students*. The classroom is often the first place we interact with, and can inspire, students. Throughout my career, I have taken the time to mentor over 15 undergraduate students, many of whom I first interacted with in class. I’ve trained these students in natural and social science research methods, helped them find research projects and internships of their own, edited their job applications, and wrote them letters of recommendation to help them achieve their goals after graduation. Many of the undergraduate students that I mentored have gone on to begin their own graduate student journey in a STEM field. As a faculty member, I could use my position of power–one that few women achieve–to not only showcase diverse perspectives in the classroom, but help students achieve the same success.

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As an educator, I can help create better learners, more interdisciplinary thinkers, more marketable graduates, and, most importantly, better stewards to the Earth. In the future, I aim to keep developing my skills in the classroom as well as continue to tackle the culture that silos students into disciplinary thinking and creates environments where all students do not feel valued and appreciated.

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*Wilson et al. 2012. J Sci Edu Technol (21):148–156. DOI: 10.1007/s10956-011-9292-5