“Natalie was easily the most helpful person throughout my experience at Cornell thus far. Everything's she done for me… has surpassed any expectation I've had of a TA and for the first time, I actually feel confident in my biology ability.”
— Anonymous student, Fall 2019 teaching evaluation
Teaching Philosophy
There are few experiences I find as rewarding as the lightbulb moment when a student discovers the logic of evolutionary theory in their own words after an hour-long discussion in office hours. I strive for this experience for every one of my students, even as I work to meet students’ more practical needs. In every one of my classes, my students know that I will support them to find a good research fit, to find summer opportunities that equip them for future plans, and to navigate the imposter syndrome that so many of us face.
I am also deeply curious about how my students learn, which means that my lesson plans include spaces for my students to teach each other (and me) about scientific knowledge. Collaborating to assemble each piece of scientific evidence into a theory is central in both my research and teaching.
Selected courses
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Invasion Biology: Threats, controversies, & the right to knowledge
This first-year writing seminar interrogates frontiers and controversies in invasion biology while foregrounding the real-world stakes of scientific literacy: invasive species” persist—or not—based on how we interpret and communicate scientific evidence.
I am developing this new course to teach in Spring 2022, supported by a Buttrick-Crippen fellowship from the Knight Writing Institute.
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The Art and Science of Biological Illustration
In this course I worked closely with artist Jillian Ditner to develop weekly 15-minute vodcasts on ornithology and natural history, and led discussions on the relationship between art and science during the weekly class.
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Writing in the Majors: Evolutionary Biology & Diversity
This course applies concepts in evolutionary biology in discussion of primary literature and writing in various scientific formats. As an evolutionary biologist myself, I’ve enjoyed teaching this course several times to a variety of audiences.
In 2017 and 2018, I taught this course to first-year Biology Scholars as part of the Galápagos study-abroad program. In 2019, I taught another version of the course to mostly upper-level undergraduates. Teaching this course solidified my desire to teach science through writing.