Teaching Experience


Course


I was instructor of record for a self-designed first year seminar course for the Fall semester of 2022, entitled “Order and Chaos”. A key motivating topic of the course was the idea that atomic motion can seem chaotic, random, bizzare, and disconnected from the world we live in. Through some final, multi-week long group projects, the students explored ways that random atomic motion can give rise to emergent, stable properties. I also gave the students lots of time and practice writing, reading, speaking and listening to scientific storytelling.

Key topics for the course:

  1. “Think like a scientist”
    • Scientific storytelling skills
    • Formulate scientific questions
    • Conduct mini research projects
    • Assessments included mini-storytelling writings/presentations, and a multi-week final project and presentation
  2. “Hidden cirriculum” of college
    • Who are professors?
    • Time-management and test-taking skills
    • What resources are available to help students?

Check-out how it went here


Teaching Philosophy

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Guest Lectures

  1. Molecular mechanics and additive protein force fields; UMass Chem 586 Statistical Mechanics
    • Feb 2020, Instructor: Dr. Jianhan Chen
  2. (Guest moderator) Student-led discussion on AlphaFold2 Nature paper; Amherst College Biophysics Seminar
    • Mar 2023, Instructor: Dr. Ashley Carter
  3. Drug design and CADD in Cancer Biology; UMB Grad. Program in Life Science 665 Cancer Biology: From Basic Research to the Clinic
    • Sep 2023, Instructors: Dr. Rena Lapidus, Dr. Feyruz Rassool
    • Oct 2024, Instructors: Dr. Rena Lapidus, Dr. Feyruz Rassool