A summer of scientific research and teaching

There has been a lot going on during summer 2008. Over the past five weeks I served as a mentor for undergraduates in a summer research program hosted by my university. In this role, I assisted a small group of students with constructing scientific research posters and offered advice about the graduate school experience.


Just this past week I finished a course that counts toward receiving a certificate in college teaching. I decided to enroll in this certificate program because
in conjunction with conducting scientific research, I also want to teach biological sciences to college students. I know most people can relate to receiving poor instruction from a professor. I don't want to be that kind of professor, thus I am being proactive about learning how to teach. Thus far, this first course explored how the teaching and learning processes occur and helped me learn how to devise teaching activities and evaluation methods suitable for the different manners in which students learn.

In the lab, research is going.... well. I sound rather hesitant there because I am awaiting results at the moment. Once these results come in, I will be better able to judge how research is really going.

Well, that is about all that I have been up to: teaching, learning, and research.