I believe that scientists should devote time to understanding how to communicate our findings, not just to discovering cool things about the universe (as important as that is!). I’ve written a couple of opinion pieces about the need for pedagogical training for scientists, which you can find in a contribution to the Women in Astronomy blog here and in my invited chapter in the “Exemplary College Science Teaching” monograph.
In the spirit of practicing what I preach, I devote as much of my time as possible to becoming a better teacher and communicator. I teach introductory astronomy courses whenever my research schedule will allow it, and am always involved in informal education through Astronomy Camp and outreach.
Formal Teaching
As a graduate student, I taught both AST101IN (Solar System) and AST102IN (Stars, Galaxies, Universe) several times each at the Downtown Campus of Pima Community College. Samples of my curricular materials can be found on my most recent course websites below.
Spring, 2014 AST102IN Course Homepage
Spring, 2012 AST101IN Course Homepage
Fall, 2011 AST101IN Course Homepage
I’m always happy to share the homeworks, projects and lab activities that I’ve developed, so please contact me if you’d like editable versions. The most recent versions of my best low-budget lab activities can be found on a separate webpage here. I’m always eager for feedback about how these activities go in others’ classrooms.
The quantitative literacy portion of this website also contains a number of curricular materials, including a database of think-pair-share questions and a set of quantitative skill review activities.
Science Communication and Outreach
One of my favorite things to do each year is to help lead several 4-8 day Astronomy Camps for teens and adults. I’ve developed a number of informal educational activities for camp, which can be found here.
For the past several years, it has also been great fun to lead the Advanced Teen Astronomy campers in classifying recently spotted supernovae with the 90″ telescope on Kitt Peak. We even managed to sneak ahead of a few other groups of professional astronomers and be the first to classify several of them (here‘s an example)!
In a former life, I taught math and science for grades 6-12 at Fusion Academy in Solana Beach, CA. I co-authored AP Chemistry for Dummies and The Chemistry Workbook for Dummies with my colleague Dr. Peter Mikulecky and wrote University of California approved high school curricula for Physics, Astronomy and Japanese 1-3.
In 2012, I entered a NASA science communication competition called FameLab: Astrobiology. I was honored to be included among the finalists. You can view my original and final 3 minute competition entries below.