Teaching philosophy

The way I approach teaching is to make myself, not so much an expert in my field, but a partner in learning. Over the long term, I attempt to make myself obsolete and unnecessary for my students. For instance, while it would be a great success to have every student read, comprehend and critically evaluate a particular scientific paper, I try to give them the tools to read and evaluate any piece of scientific literature whether it is primary or popular literature.  I attempt to do this in two ways. First I give them a practical guide to writing critiques of scientific papers, supplying them with questions that they should ask themselves while reading and responding to a paper. Second, I ask them to participate in weekly discussions where not only can they contribute to the conversation but they also learn how other students approached the problem. I want to engage students in a critical look at the natural world in which they live, and to allow them to see themselves as participants in academia and their community.

This teaching philosophy demands highly interactive relationships, engaging students in a dialogue, and often increasing student-student dialogue as well. Whenever possible, I try to structure my teaching around my students needs, rather than the structure of textbooks. In developing a lesson plan, for example, I always begin by asking what my students should know and be able to do at the end of the class, and then move on to designing the actual class content. During tutorials, I structure the class time around discussion. Frequently, we will focus on a challenging question about an article, one that demands that students both read the text closely and listen closely to each other’s questions and arguments. I encourage students to meet with me to discuss their impressions before I grade their written response to the piece. This not only allows me a chance to intervene in their writing, but also encourages them to see critical thinking and writing as a process of engagement and re-engagement with a problem or idea. Further, I assign students to small working groups where they are not only more likely to be more active participants than in a full-class discussion, but are also more likely to engage each other in debate about and refinement of their ideas.

In my teaching experiences, I have focused on two key methods: first, while coverage of factual information is central to science, students are better equipped with skills than facts. Second, students learn those necessary skills best through an interactive teaching style that requires their involvement and tests their abilities. Indeed, all students need a basic knowledge of their discipline, and lectures fill this need. However, in my tutorials and exam questions I ask the students to apply the concepts learned in lecture to skill building exercises such as debates, verbal presentations of their critique of scientific papers and practical exam questions: I want students to apply life history theory, to such diverse situations as desert plants and migratory seabirds to understand some of the grand unifying concepts of ecology; I want them to confront ecological theory with data and decide whether they believe the theoreticians are approaching the problem in an appropriate way; I want students to use their research papers to explore evolutionary and ecological issues that are important to them and to their communities.

Because I ask my students to risk a good deal -- it is never easy to give a presentation or speak individually in class knowing that your classmates and your instructor are watching, or listening carefully -- I also work to make my classroom a safe environment by 1) beginning each quarter with a verbal introductory exercise designed not only to combat the anonymity of many college classrooms, but also to encourage a sense of community and support among students 2) by providing clear expectations of full-participation and structure of the conversation. Students need a clear idea of what's expected of them in the classroom and in their assignments. In short, I try to create a dependable structure within which my students can take the risks that are necessary to their intellectual development and independence.

Teaching Experience

I have a wide-breadth of teaching experience, from large lecture based classes to intimate seminar-style discussions. At Rice University, I have taught an ecological genetics course with an intensive research and writing component. Past student evaluators have commented:

• " Dr. Campbell is one of the rare gems at Rice. Her warmness and passion for teaching was evident every class. Never showed frustration or impatience. She was always available for help and a pleasure to have a one-on-one conversation.."
• " Dr. Campbell was a very excited and engaging professor. She worked very hard to make the material as interesting as possible and the assignments as meaningful as possible. She always seemed to have alot of fun teaching and was always willing to help."
• " Dr. Campbell is one of the most inspiring and kind professors I have come across. Her willingness to help her students and her desire to have them learn is simply amazing."
• " I would take another class from her in a heartbeat."
• " She kept me in the class. Had another professor been teaching, I would have dropped for sure."
• " Dr. Campbell focuses more on problem solving and building critical thinking skills with the tools available in the field over being a human library of the field's data. She developed these kinds of skills by things like teaching and walking us through how to critically analyze papers using the methods and tools we just recently learned in population genetics, giving us a group project to get a feel for how one collects the data oneself and analyzes it with evolutionary biology concepts, and letting us make equation sheets and have our final as more of a project using the lectures as a resource."

As a graduate student at Ohio State University, I was a teaching assistant for honors, upper-level and introductory biology courses in which I lectured and led biology labs for both majors and non-majors. Further, I have mentored 5 undergraduate researchers through independent research projects and trained 19 undergraduate research assistants in evolutionary and ecological laboratory and field methods.

Teaching Interests

I am well-prepared to teach a number of lecture courses such as Introductory Biology, Evolutionary Biology, Plant population biology, Ecological Genetics, Conservation Biology, Plant Taxonomy, and Eco-informatics.

I am also prepared to teach more specialized seminars on such topics as Life History Evolution, Plant Mating Systems, and Ecological Genetics. To foster diverse, interdisciplinary interactions among faculty and students, I would be interested in leading seminars on grant writing and scientific communication (e.g., how to give effective talks at scientific meetings).