Outreach

I am proud to be part of the UC Davis Evolution & Ecology Preview Program. This program aims to remove barriers to graduate school by making the graduate school application process more transparent. I used information from Preview Program when I was applying to graduate school and am grateful to give back to the program. While at UC Davis, I have acted as the program's Support Chair (2023), Co-Mentor Coordinator (2022) and a workshop leader (2022, Finding & Contacting Potential Advisors).

I have created several modeling Shiny apps for use in youth camps and K-12 classrooms. As an example, I have created lessons and a Shiny model on salmon bioenergetics under different temperature and prey avalibility situations for use in K-12 classrooms as part of Juneau's Sea Week programing.

Teaching

I have both acted as a Teaching Assistant and Instructor of Record for UC Davis' "Population Ecology" course. The goal for the course is to understand population dynamics and appreciate the role of modeling in studying ecological systems. I firmly believe everyone has the capacity to grow mathematically and incorporate mathematical thinking into their science. As an instructor, I use active, co-construction of knowledge and project-based learning, grounded in the guiding principles:

• Course content needs context. Especially for STEM courses, including applications that match student interests can help reduce cognitive load of starting problem solving, increase feelings of belonging, and improve student understanding. When introducing students to models, I start with historical and ecological context to generate student interest and provide motivation for the material.
• Peer-to-peer interaction improves learning. Co-creating knowledge with peers gives students the opportunity to process and integrate ideas into their own mental schemas, improving understanding. In the classroom, I facilitate co-creation of knowledge by scaffolding up to and building in “student talk” opportunities.
• Interpersonal skills are as valuable as practical skills. Science increasingly requires skills beyond physically “doing” science. Providing students with a space to practice these skills is central to developing well-rounded scientists. Acknowledging this, I design overarching course and assignment objectives that address both the social and practical skills a scientist might need.

Student reviews reflected positively on the teaching environment and the skills they gained through the course: "[Laurie] is incredibly organized, provides great feedback, is adaptive and very receptive to feedback, very approachable, and an amazing teacher overall... She made me super motivated to learn." "I actually improved my confidence in math and feel like I have a much better understanding on how to read and write models. I feel less scared when mathematical models come up in papers that I read now too." "I feel much more comfortable with mathematical models now. I can attempt to analyze them and even if I do some of the steps incorrectly, I understand the overall point."