Teaching & Outreach
My teaching revolves around the idea that science isn’t simply a body of facts, but a way to ask questions about how our bodies work and the world around us. I’m especially passionate about neuroscience, so I enjoy teaching it at UMass and sharing it with students in classrooms throughout the Pioneer Valley.
If you are a teacher in the Pioneer Valley and are interested in having me speak to your class, please contact me.
Current Courses
Biology 572 – Advanced Neurobiology
This course explores a wide range of topics in neurobiology, ranging in scale from molecular and cellular mechanisms to the organization of tissues to animal behavior. A main goal of this course is for students to develop an understanding of how the nervous system works and how, through experimentation, scientists and clinicians have developed the current state of neuroscience. By learning about these experiments, often by examining the primary scientific literature, students will develop their critical thinking skills, in particular hypothesis testing and data evaluation.
Biology 105 – The Biology of Social Issues
This team taught course examines biological principles that underlie important and sometimes controversial issues in today’s society. All of these issues are connected to questions of public policy, but public policy is not the focus of this course. Most of what is covered in class is biology. The two main goals for this class are to introduce fundamental questions, ideas, and methods of interpretation regarding the biology of social issues, and to consider how these questions, ideas, and methods can be applied to real world problems and contexts.