Teaching

I’m very passionate about STEM education and pedagogical practices, especially as they relate to the math hesitant and to traditionally underrepresented groups in the sciences. My teaching statement and sample course materials are available on request.

In May 2022, I earned a Certificate of College Teaching Preparation from the Yale University Poorvu Center for Teaching and Learning, which also meets the requirements for CIRTL Associate. And, to the end of better conveying complex material to learners (and the public in an outreach capacity), I earned a Certificate in Science Communication through the Northwestern University Center for Interdisciplinary Exploration and Research in Astrophysics SCOPE program in June 2022 and a Kavli SciComm Essentials Certificate from the Kavli Foundation in December 2023.

I also maintain astroteaching.github.io, where I have aggregated various open source course materials and visualizations/resources to make it easier for other instructors to find. Please feel free to e-mail me if you’d like to see something added!

I recently created a primer on astrophysics for students interested in pursuing the field, involving more than 30 (!!) women in the effort. An online version of that book, Astronomy as a Field: A Guide for Aspiring Astrophysicists, is available here.

Below is a list of my specific teaching involvements (past + present); evaluations are linked where available.

University of Chicago

I am a Graduate Fellow of the Chicago Center for Teaching & Learning. As a Fellow, I am charged with developing and delivering instruction and programming related to teaching and pedagogy to other early career scholars at the University of Chicago. In addition to the other responsibilities of that role, I have held the following positions through the CCTL:

  • Teaching Mentor, CCTE 50000: Course Design and College Teaching, Autumn 2023
  • Instructor, Fundamentals of Teaching in STEM, Winter 2024
  • Founder/Facilitator, Pedagogy in the Physical Sciences talk series, 2024 - Present

Yale University

Lead Instructor, Yale Young Global Scholars, 2020 - 2022

  • Summer 2020 (evaluations)
    • STEM11AP: Astronomy Sans the White Dudes
    • STEM12AP: Introduction to Extragalactic Astrophysics
    • STEM13AP: Physics Sans the White Dudes
    • STEM14AP: Introduction to Stellar Astrophysics
  • Summer 2021 (evaluations)
    • IST21AvaP/IST31AvaP: Introduction to Extragalactic Astrophysics
    • IST22AvaP/IST32AvaP: Monetizing Misinformation – what happens when astronomers sell out the science
    • IST23AvaP/IST33AvaP: Astronomy Sans the White Dudes
    • IST24AvaP/IST34AvaP: Introduction to Stellar Astrophyics
  • Summer 2022 (evaluations)
    • IST11AvaP: Introduction to Extragalactic Astrophysics
    • IST12AvaP: Monetizing Misinformation – what happens when astronomers sell out the science
    • IST13AvaP: The $pace Industry – Manifest Destiny and the Final Frontier
    • IST14AvaP: Dancing in the Dark – Exploring the dark sector

Graduate Teaching Fellow, 2019 - 2021

  • ASTR 110: Planets & Stars, Dr. Michael Faison, Fall 2019 (4.6/5.0)
  • ASTR 170: Introduction to Cosmology, Prof. Priya Natarajan, Spring 2020 (N/A due to COVID-19)
  • ASTR 110: Planets & Stars, Prof. Michael Faison, Fall 2020 (4.7/5.0)
  • ASTR255/PHYS295: Research Methods in Astrophysics, Prof. Héctor Arce, Fall 2021 (4.1/5.0)
    • Tutorials created for students in ASTR 255 are available here.

Teaching Assistant, Yale Summer Program in Astrophysics, 2019 - 2020

Northwestern University

Grader, Physics 330-2: Classical Mechanics, Prof. Nathaniel Stern, Winter 2019

Peer-Guided Study Group Facilitator, Academic Support and Learning Advancement (Searle Center for Advancing Learning & Teaching), 2017 - 2019

  • Physics 135-1, Prof. David Taylor and Prof. Art Schmidt, Fall 2017
  • Physics 135-2, Prof. Deborah Brown, Winter 2018
  • Physics 135-3, Prof. Deborah Brown, Spring 2018
  • Physics 135-1, Prof. Deborah Brown, Fall 2018
  • Physics 135-2, Prof. Deborah Brown, Winter 2019
  • Physics 135-3, Prof. Deborah Brown, Spring 2019

N’Cat Tutor, Northwestern Athletics, 2017 - 2019

Learning Assistant, Physics 135-3, Prof. Zosia Krusberg, Searle Center for Advancing Learning & Teaching, Spring 2018

Mentorship

I’m also very interested in good mentorship practices. My current + past students are listed below.

I’m sometimes approached by students for informational interviews; please do reach out if you’re interested in learning more about my research or trajectory. One of the most informative things I did as an undergraduate (which I wish I had done even sooner) was cold email astrophysicists at various career stages to chat about their work and path to/through science.

University of Chicago

  • Catherine Mah (Hong Kong University Physics ‘25, exchange student at UChicago) – Recovering photometry and structural properties for a diverse sample of dwarf galaxies; work conducted in the Chen group

I have also worked with a number of high school students, both through my research involvements in graduate school and through Polygence. If you are a high schooler interested in working with me through Polygence, just make sure to list me as your preference for mentor when you go through the application process.

Yale University

  • Rohan S. (Choate Rosemary Hall externship; now Yale ‘27) – Integrated light photometry, galaxy morphology, Dragonfly Wide-Field Survey; work conducted in the van Dokkum group

Polygence

  • Anagha R. (Millburn High School; now University of Rochester Physics and Astronomy ‘26) – “Finding the constant of an accelerating universe: the Hubble constant” (JOURNYS)
  • Cora C. (Issaquah High School; now UCSB Physics ‘25) – “Fourth order integration of the solar system”
  • Anirudh K. (The Shri Ram School Aravali; now UCLA Comp Sci + Math ‘25) – “A review of black hole X-ray transients”
  • Jacqueline H. (Campolindo High School; now UCSD Comp Sci ‘25) – “A surface brightness profile of M31 from archival SDSS data” (JOURNYS, submitted)
  • Jeshwanth M. (Arcadia High School; now UC Berkeley Engineering Physics ‘26) – “Multi-messenger observability of neutron star binary systems” (JOURNYS, submitted)
  • Tommaso F. (Longfields-Davidson Heights Secondary School; now University of Waterloo Physics and Astronomy ‘27) – “The correlation between the luminosity of active galactic nuclei and host galaxy parameters” (Research Archive of Rising Scholars)
  • Saanvi K. (La Martiniere for Girls) – “A review of modern X-ray instrumentation”
  • Gabriel K. (La Canada High School) – “Fitting Luminosity Decay Curves of Long Gamma-Ray Bursts, Short Gamma-Ray Bursts, Magnetar Flares, and Kilonovae” (in prep for submission to a HS journal)
  • Aaron F. (Bronx High School of Science; now Boston University Astronomy ‘27) – “How do our solar system’s planets fit with other exoplanets?”
  • Paul B. (Carlmont High School) – Redshift, radial velocity measurements (in prep for submission to a HS journal)
  • Harshitha M. (Strawberry Crest High School) – “What evidence points to the existence of Planet 9?” (in prep for submission to a HS journal)
  • Nishant Kartik N. (Sai International School; now Penn VIPER ‘28) – Dark matter
  • Mahika K. (Leland High School) – Sky brightness; correlation with lunar phase, seeing, azimuthal angle
  • Ila B. (Dougherty Valley High School) – Recovering the X-ray light curve of SN 2012ca
  • Zhi Ling (Lauren) C. (Downe House School) – Varying AGN observability with changing physical parameters
  • Inaya K. (Homeschooled) – Neutron stars
  • Jonathan S. (The Science Academy STEM Magnet) – Recovering the role of AGN feedback from IllustrisTNG
  • Jack P. (Windward School) – Galactic 21 cm measurements with homemade setup (improvement on Fong+23)