Summary of Teaching Roles and Responsibilities

• Term: Fall 2024
• Lead Instructor: Me!

Course Details: The course focuses on the intersection between Psychology research and the Internet. The first half of the course explores how the Internet can serve as a new tool/methodology/data source to ask classic psychology questions. The midterm assignment asks students to create a programming tutorial that explains how to access and work with one type of Internet data (i.e. social media, Reddit, search). The second half of the course focuses on new psychological questions that arise in an environment that is as complex and novel as the Internet. The final assignment asks students to write an op-ed suggesting a new regulation for the Internet, based on psychological theories.

Instructional Responsibilities:

• Created a syllabus from scratch
• Created all course materials
  • Lesson plans
  • Coding tutorials
  • Slides and assignment sheets
• Facilitated weekly discussions
• Graded coding assignments and papers

• Terms: January 2020-August 2022
• Lead Instructor: Diana Li

Course Details: BRAINYAC is a program aimed at high school students from underrepresented backgrounds to provide an opportunity to learn neuroscience and conduct science research. Each year, a cohort of 15-20 students is admitted. In the spring, students come to Columbia on Saturday mornings to learn neuroscience and research skills. Activities include a sheep brain dissection, wet-lab skills such as pipetting and dilutions, and Python tutorials. Over the summer, students complete a paid internship in a neuroscience research lab, culiminating in a poster presentation.

Instructional Responsibilities:

• Co-created course materials
  • Detailed lesson plans
  • Slides and worksheets
  • Python tutorials
• Co-taught classes
• Helped organize social events for students
• Guided students in the creation of their poster on their summer research project

• Term: January 2023

Course Details: Genspace is a public biolab in Brooklyn with a mission to make science more acessible to all. I taught a 2-day, 6-hour course called Neurohacking 101. In this course, students learned the basics of fMRI and how to work with neuroimaging data in Python, using a Python package called nilearn. Students learned basic analytic procedures, brain visualization techniques, and some machine learning. Approximately 10 students enrolled in the course.

Instructional Responsibilities:

• Created/adapted course materials
  • Multiple Python tutorials
  • Lecture slides
• Led sheep brain dissection
• Assisted students with finding and analyzing their own data

Term: Spring 2023

Course Details: The Double Discovery Center runs a college readiness program for high school students who go to under-resourced schools. Through the program, students can take elective courses on Saturdays. I created a course with several other Columbia graduate students/researchers on written science communication, using the trainee-run blog Scientist on the Subway (SciSub) . Over 7 weeks, students interviewed a classmate about their science interests and wrote a profile of them. At the end of the course, students’ articles were posted on the SciSub website. 6 students enrolled in the course.

Instructional Responsibilities:

• Wrote course proposal and basic lesson plans
• Co-taught class sessions
• Co-created class slides
• Provided students with feedback on written work

• Terms: Spring 2022, Fall 2022
• Lead Instructor: Kevin Ochsner

Course Details: In this course, students learn about the scientific process, from choosing a research question to experimental design to thinking critically about the meaning of data. Many of the studies that are used to teach these concepts come from the fields of social psychology and emotion research. Students attend a weekly 2-hour lecture, and a weekly 2-hour lab session, in which they work with a group to conduct their own research study. There were approximately 50 students in this course, with 15-20 in each section.

Instructional Responsibilities:

• Led lab section (1 lab section in spring 2022, 2 lab sections in fall 2022)
• Introduced the use of R into the course for data analysis
• Created/adapted course materials
  • Weekly lab section slides
  • Several basic R tutorials using R Studio Cloud
  • Experimental demo
  • Collaborative Google documents for group work
• Graded assignments
  • Written homework synthesizing research studies and brainstorming research project ideas
  • Short answer questions on two exams
  • Final presentation on group project
  • Final essay
• Held weekly office hours

• Term: Spring 2021
• Lead Instructor: Niall Bolger

Course Details: In this course, students learn about the scientific process, from choosing a research question to experimental design to thinking critically about the meaning of data. Many of the studies that are used to teach these concepts come from the fields of social and personality psychology. Students attend a weekly 2-hour lecture, and a weekly 2-hour lab session, in which they work with a group to conduct their own research study. This course was administered entirely on Zoom. Approximately 35 students were enrolled.

Instructional Responsibilities:

• Led lab section
• Created/adapted course materials
  • Weekly lab section slides
  • Several basic R tutorials using R Studio Cloud
  • Collaborative Google documents for group work
• Graded assignments
  • Written homework synthesizing research studies and brainstorming research project ideas
  • Final presentation on group project
  • Final essay
• Held weekly office hours

• Term: Spring 2024
• Lead Instructor: Jon Freeman

Course Details: Social Neuroscience is a lecture course primarily for Psychology and Neuroscience & Behavior majors. This course provides a broad overview of the field of social neuroscience, and examines the interplay between social processes, neural mechanisms, and cultural experiences. Learning primarily takes place in lecture, with weekly readings and a written assignments. Students also take three exams. There were approximately 120 students enrolled in the course.

Instructional Responsibilities:

• Taught a guest lecture about social neuroscience and social media
• Graded written assignments
• Reviewed exam questions before exams were administered
• Graded exams
• Held weekly office hours

• Term: Spring 2020
• Lead Instructor: Katherine Fox-Glassman

Course Details: Thinking and Decision Making is a lecture course primarily for Psychology majors. In this course, students learn different theories of decision making as well as many of the cognitive biases and heuristics that affect decisions. Learning primarily takes place in lecture, with weekly readings and occasional written assignments. Students also take a midterm and a final exam. There were approximately 120 students enrolled in the course.

Instructional Responsibilities:

• Taught a guest lecture about the neuroscience of decision-making
• Graded written assignments
• Reviewed exam questions before exams were administered
• Graded exams
• Held weekly office hours
• Assisted with the transition to Zoom during the onset of the Covid pandemic

• Term: Summer 2020
• Lead Instructor: Joshua Feinberg

Course Details: This is a lecture course that was administered entirely on Zoom. Students learn basic theories of social psychology and affective science. This course was administered in a compressed format over the summer, meeting twice/week for 3 hours at a time over the course of 5 weeks. Students completed weekly discussion posts, weekly readings, and a final group project on a topic of their choosing. There were approximately 20 students in the course.

Instructional Responsibilities:

• Guest taught a lecture on attitudes and beliefs
• Reviewed and responded to weekly discussion posts
• Assisted with grading for the final project
• Held weekly office hours

• Terms: Summer 2021, Summer 2022, Summer 2023

Course Details: SIPPS is a summer program put on by graduate students in Columbia’s Psychology department, with the explicit goal of increasing access to research experiences as an undergraduate. Students learn about data analysis and research skills in weekly workshops (all taught by graduate students), and work with mentors on a summer research project. The summer culminates in a mini-conference where students are able to present their work. The program has evolved over the past few years, but each year approximately 15 students have participated in the research portion of the program.

Instructional Responsibilities:

• Leading R tutorials
• Adapting/updating materials from previous years
• Helping students with “challenge” assignments based on what they learned during the tutorial

• Terms: Fall 2020, Fall 2021

Course Details: For several years graduate students in the Psychology department have led a 3-session “bootcamp” on coding in R and Python, aimed at new graduate students and advanced undergraduates. Each session is a full day of tutorials and free time to work on “challenge” assignments.

Instructional Responsibilities:

• Taught several coding tutorials, using previously-created materials
• TAed for the bootcamp i.e. assisted students who were struggling to keep up with live coding
• Helped students with “challenge” assignments based on what they learned during the tutorial