My qualifications for teaching particular courses come from having taken these courses myself and having done research in those subject areas. While my PhD research was on hydrology and climate interactions at the river basin  (synoptic/meso-) scale, my graduate coursework (~Twenty 1-4 point courses) focused on physical oceanography and climate physics. I also participated in 4 research cruises with a focus on physical oceanographic surveying.

I have several ideas for courses I could develop and teach. The first one is closest to my own research: “The Water Cycle” (grad and/or undergrad) which would focus on interactions between the land, atmosphere, and oceans on synoptic and longer time scales, with respect to the transport and storage of fresh water.  Another course which I would be interested in developing and teaching would be “Professional Practices in Science”. This course would be for graduate students and would discuss academic and private-sector research ethics, organization, project management, data management, group work, science writing, poster-making, and talk-giving. In addition to lectures and classroom discussion, I would use case studies, guest speakers, and practice presentations by students. Finally I am also interested in developing and teaching “Introduction to Modeling in the Climate Sciences” or “Advanced Data Analysis for Climate, Meteorology, and Ocean Sciences”.

My traditional teaching experiences include being the teaching assistant for an undergraduate course in Climate System Science where I helped teach and oversee a weekly lab. These were students with a strong interest in Earth and Environmental science and many of them went on to major in this subject. The second section I taught was a recitation for a graduate course called Environmental Science for Decision-Makers at Columbia’s School for International and Public Affairs. I prepared and delivered a weekly lecture on quantitative methods and assigned homeworks that complemented the main part of the class. The students in my recitation were environmental policy masters students with good critical thinking skills, but weak quantitative skills. The needs of these two student bodies were quite different, but there are basic methods which I have learned from workshops at the Columbia Teaching Center that can be tailored to different groups of students. Finally, I have had several one-on-one teaching experiences with junior high and high school students at risk through Americorps and an outreach center at Columbia called Double Discovery.

As a student, I have had both traditional and untraditional learning experiences. While most of my time at Columbia University was in a traditional classroom setting, I spent at semester with Earth System Science program at Biosphere 2, a combination of field work, research, and expert lectures. A year later I spent a semester studying ocean sciences and sailing as part of the Sea Education Association's program out of Woods Hole, MA. Both of these programs led me to Research Experience   
for Undergraduates (REUs) internships at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, respectively. Even as early as high school (Lincoln, Nebraska) I was interested in education and helped establish an experimental science theme school. I was in part motivated by the “outdoor education” I had received through participation in a Colorado Outward Bound program and by working on our family farm. These experiences helped me connect the outdoor environment with science and, more generally, the process of discovery. As a graduate student, my best classroom learning occurred during the several “summer schools” I attended. These intensive workshops combined lectures, informal discussions with faculty, and time outdoors. I mention these learning experiences because learning and teaching are nearly inseparable in my mind. I hope to learn as much from teaching and advising my students as they learn from me.