Roles as a Teaching Assistant

This class introduces students to basic molecular biology techniques. As far as TA duties go, this class was easy — most grad students know how to clone genes and purify protein, fun — you really get to know students and watch them solve problems, and rewarding — to see them leverage their newfound powers in research labs after the course. I taught this one by myself, 3 times a week. 

This class is usually a challenge for students, but it is really great to teach because you start to unwind the mechanistic underpinnings of the central dogma. Some folks really appreciate a look behind the curtain and that gives me energy. I held section 3 times a week and met weekly with students for office hours. 

This was an online COVID class. Not really my favorite format. I was just a glorified grader for this course. 

This upper-division class covers molecular mechanisms unique to prokaryotic organisms. Most students are familiar with eukaryotic biology, but are often surprised to find more elegant systems in microbes. For example, show me a eukaryote capable of transcriptional coupling (you can't). This course obviously overlaps with my current focus, and I think that's played into more exiting discussions during sections. If you're excited, they're, well, kind of excited.