Teaching

I grew up in a small town with two liberal arts colleges, surrounded by prairie and farmland. From an early age I came to value the open exchange of ideas, a spirit of collaborative learning, and an education that is fostered by a close-knit faculty and student body. The generational challenges we now face are well suited to the liberal arts educational approach, and the Earth sciences provide a strong foundation from which to understand and address our greatest threat, climate change. I recognize that many of my students will not continue on to become Earth scientists, but whether they are majors, minors, or simply fulfilling a requirement, all students will engage in our democracy and make decisions about environmental issues. Accordingly, my teaching philosophy is grounded in the idea that a course should not only cover content, but also seek to improve students’ abilities to access and interpret scientific information, interrogate ideas, communicate with individuals from diverse backgrounds, and respect our natural environment.

At Middlebury my courses in the Department of Earth and Climate Sciences (ECSC) include:

120: “How to Build a Habitable Planet”

161: “Earth’s Oceans and Coastlines”

302: “Climate and Earth’s History”

340: “Sedimentary Processes and Environments”

400: “Senior Seminar”

500: “Independent Study”

700/701: “Independent Research”

If you are interested in learning more about these courses please see the department’s page on course offerings here. You are welcome contact me if you are interested in learning more about my teaching approaches or syllabi.

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In 2018, while I was a Voss Postdoctoral Fellow at Brown University, I taught ENVS 0490: "Environmental Science in a Changing World". This 90-person introductory environmental science course is the foundational course for the Environmental Science concentration (major) at Brown.

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