Upcoming 2024-2025 Courses:
Grenfell Campus:
Fall 2024:
ENVS 2000: Sampling Methods in Environmental Science
ENVS 4230: Aquatic Chemistry I
Winter 2025:
CHEM 1001: General Chemistry II (2 sections)
ENVS 3262: Environmental Biogeochemistry (online)
Past Courses:
Grenfell Campus:
CHEM 1200: General Chemistry I (Fall 2020, two sections, remote delivery)
CHEM 1001: General Chemistry II (Winter 2021 (two sections, remote delivery), 2023, 2024 (two sections))
ENVS 2000: Sampling Methods in Environmental Science (Fall 2019, 2021, 2022, 2023)*
ENVS 3210: Environmental Analytical Chemistry I (Fall 2019)
ENVS 3211: Environmental Analytical Chemistry II (Winter 2020, 2022)
ENVS 3262: Environmental Biogeochemistry (*new course, Winter 2022)
ENVS/SC 4000: Environmental Science/General Science Seminar (Winter 2020, Fall 2023)*
ENVS 4230: Aquatic Chemistry I (Winter 2021, remote delivery); Fall (City Studio Course with the Corner Brook Drinking Water Treatment Plant) 2021, 2022, 2023
University of Waterloo, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences:
EARTH 491/322: Ecohydrology (Winters 2018, 2019)*
* denotes a team taught course
Grenfell Campus:
Fall 2024:
ENVS 2000: Sampling Methods in Environmental Science
ENVS 4230: Aquatic Chemistry I
Winter 2025:
CHEM 1001: General Chemistry II (2 sections)
ENVS 3262: Environmental Biogeochemistry (online)
Past Courses:
Grenfell Campus:
CHEM 1200: General Chemistry I (Fall 2020, two sections, remote delivery)
CHEM 1001: General Chemistry II (Winter 2021 (two sections, remote delivery), 2023, 2024 (two sections))
ENVS 2000: Sampling Methods in Environmental Science (Fall 2019, 2021, 2022, 2023)*
ENVS 3210: Environmental Analytical Chemistry I (Fall 2019)
ENVS 3211: Environmental Analytical Chemistry II (Winter 2020, 2022)
ENVS 3262: Environmental Biogeochemistry (*new course, Winter 2022)
ENVS/SC 4000: Environmental Science/General Science Seminar (Winter 2020, Fall 2023)*
ENVS 4230: Aquatic Chemistry I (Winter 2021, remote delivery); Fall (City Studio Course with the Corner Brook Drinking Water Treatment Plant) 2021, 2022, 2023
University of Waterloo, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences:
EARTH 491/322: Ecohydrology (Winters 2018, 2019)*
* denotes a team taught course
Located in the beautiful city of Corner Brook, Newfoundland, near Gros Morne National Park, Grenfell is a campus of Memorial University.
I generally teach within the Environmental Science and General Science Undergraduate Programs. Click on the buttons below for more information on those programs and admissions.
I generally teach within the Environmental Science and General Science Undergraduate Programs. Click on the buttons below for more information on those programs and admissions.
Awards:
- Nominated by my peers in Spring 2022.Vice President's Grenfell Campus Teaching Award (not awarded)
- November 2021: Grenfell Campus Student Union (GCSU) Teaching Award (awarded)
- Awarded in Spring 2022 ($9,555): Enhancing student learning in a new environmental science course through the creation of virtual reality-based field trips. Source: MUN CITL- Teaching Innovations and Learning Enhancement (TILE) Fund
- Awarded in Winter 2021 ($2,140): Use of an interactive chemistry web application to improve student learning and engagement in a remote General Chemistry II course.
Whether in the classroom or the laboratory, I am driven by the belief that all students can succeed. My role is to facilitate learning by providing students with the tools and meaningful opportunities to support deep learning, cultivate student autonomy, and produce lifelong learners. I believe in an open and honest relationship with students built on mutual respect whereby I model the behaviours that I expect to see, admit my mistakes, and I am explicit in my instruction.
My goal is to provide students with active and authentic learning experiences while providing diverse opportunities for self-reflection, instructor/peer interactions, and feedback. For example, I've integrated experiential learning into a fourth-year Aquatic Chemistry course (Fall 2021, 2022, and 2023) by partnering with the City of Corner Brook Drinking Water Treatment Plant to work together in their lab to identify the relative sources of water to the drinking water supply and to evaluate the efficacy of different water treatment chemicals. Past active learning examples include: 1) concept mapping for course review in a third-year analytical chemistry course; 2) online polls in remote live first year chemistry lectures; and 3) remote group-based weekly live problem-solving classes.
Whenever possible, I use an evidence-informed approach to course design. For example, I was inspired by an article in the Journal of Chemical Education (JCE) to improve student performance through metacognitive training via weekly learning surveys during the remote delivery of two first-year chemistry courses. Inspired by another JCE article, I incorporated research into a second-year Sampling Methods in Environmental Science course whereby students analyzed/deployed air samplers on campus to identify hot spots of pollutant emissions (nitrogen oxides) from vehicles.
I assess students based on measurable learning outcomes which includes a mixture of low (e.g., weekly quizzes) and high (e.g., tests) stake assessments. I also provide students with rubrics before due dates. I’ve engaged and empowered students in their own learning by using class time to co-develop rubrics for presentations/assignments. In addition to implementing UDL principles, I am passionate about using openly available resources. I’ve taught eight new (to me) courses since joining Grenfell Campus (GC) in 2019, and I’ve always selected textbooks freely available online (e.g., OpenStax Chem2e for first-year chemistry) or as e-books through the library.
In Fall 2021, I was awarded a Grenfell Campus Student Union Teaching and Learning Award and in Spring 2022, I was nominated for the Vice President's Grenfell Campus Teaching Award (not awarded). I believe I am successful because I love teaching, I am well organized, explicit in instructions/ expectations, empathetic, non-judgmental, and I solicit and address feedback. Moving forward, I plan to embrace the invaluable insights, lessons, and skills gained through the COVID 19 pandemic to support what I hope is a cultural shift in higher education. This involves thinking “outside of the box” to design accessible online environmental science courses linking technology (e.g., virtual reality) to real-world contexts to provide learners with a better foundation in which to place and apply their knowledge.
My goal is to provide students with active and authentic learning experiences while providing diverse opportunities for self-reflection, instructor/peer interactions, and feedback. For example, I've integrated experiential learning into a fourth-year Aquatic Chemistry course (Fall 2021, 2022, and 2023) by partnering with the City of Corner Brook Drinking Water Treatment Plant to work together in their lab to identify the relative sources of water to the drinking water supply and to evaluate the efficacy of different water treatment chemicals. Past active learning examples include: 1) concept mapping for course review in a third-year analytical chemistry course; 2) online polls in remote live first year chemistry lectures; and 3) remote group-based weekly live problem-solving classes.
Whenever possible, I use an evidence-informed approach to course design. For example, I was inspired by an article in the Journal of Chemical Education (JCE) to improve student performance through metacognitive training via weekly learning surveys during the remote delivery of two first-year chemistry courses. Inspired by another JCE article, I incorporated research into a second-year Sampling Methods in Environmental Science course whereby students analyzed/deployed air samplers on campus to identify hot spots of pollutant emissions (nitrogen oxides) from vehicles.
I assess students based on measurable learning outcomes which includes a mixture of low (e.g., weekly quizzes) and high (e.g., tests) stake assessments. I also provide students with rubrics before due dates. I’ve engaged and empowered students in their own learning by using class time to co-develop rubrics for presentations/assignments. In addition to implementing UDL principles, I am passionate about using openly available resources. I’ve taught eight new (to me) courses since joining Grenfell Campus (GC) in 2019, and I’ve always selected textbooks freely available online (e.g., OpenStax Chem2e for first-year chemistry) or as e-books through the library.
In Fall 2021, I was awarded a Grenfell Campus Student Union Teaching and Learning Award and in Spring 2022, I was nominated for the Vice President's Grenfell Campus Teaching Award (not awarded). I believe I am successful because I love teaching, I am well organized, explicit in instructions/ expectations, empathetic, non-judgmental, and I solicit and address feedback. Moving forward, I plan to embrace the invaluable insights, lessons, and skills gained through the COVID 19 pandemic to support what I hope is a cultural shift in higher education. This involves thinking “outside of the box” to design accessible online environmental science courses linking technology (e.g., virtual reality) to real-world contexts to provide learners with a better foundation in which to place and apply their knowledge.