I served as TA for several different courses as a graduate student at UT Austin. The majority of my time was spent assisting with two field courses: Introductory Field Biology (taught by Kay McMurry) and Field Ecology (taught by Lawrence E. Gilbert). Both courses heavily utilized Brackenridge Field Laboratory (BFL), a unique urban field station located within short driving distance of the UT Austin campus. In addition to giving many students firsthand access to natural history, this arrangement permits students to conduct a variety of group and independent research projects.

 

TAing these two courses has given me a strong interest in developing courses with a field component that gives students direct access to nature. Such experiences, which are often undervalued today, are the raw material that produces great science and scientists. Organisms in nature are, after all, a focal point of ecology and evolutionary biology.

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