Teaching + Mentoring

To facilitate effective student learning, I make an effort to:

  • use active, hands-on approaches
  • maintain a level of curricular flexibility
  • apply evidence-based inclusive pedagogical practices
  • teach through a lens of curiosity and discovery
  • foster an environment of compassion and respect
  • use a narrative framework to contextualize course content
  • regularly ask myself: how does this serve the students?

As a science teacher at Marin Academy (independent high school), I teach Advanced Biology and I serve as the program coordinator for the Marin Academy Research Collaborative (MARC). As MARC program coordinator, I guide and support student participants in independent, cutting-edge science & engineering research in partnership with content-area expert mentors.

Prior to starting at Marin Academy, I was a Lecturer in Biological Sciences at Towson University‘s Fisher College of Science and Mathematics, teaching General Zoology and Introduction to Ecology & Evolution. I held an Adjunct Lecturer position with the Macaulay Honors College at the City University of New York, teaching Science Literacy in Brooklyn College‘s Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences. I designed and taught a seminar course, Exploring Sound in the Animal Kingdom, through a fellowship with the CIRTL Network (Center for the Integration of Research, Teaching, and Learning). I served as Lab Instructor for Animal Behavior and Ornithology in the Department of Biology at the University of Massachusetts – Amherst. I’ve mentored over 30 undergraduate research assistants in field and lab techniques, and I’ve advised two undergraduate senior honors theses.

I am committed to continuing to develop my teaching and mentoring skills, and I hope to further integrate methods from the science education literature into my practice, particularly with respect to fostering an inclusive learning environment and empowering students to be scientifically conscious citizens and lifelong science advocates.

email: amyvstrauss@gmail.com / twitter: @avstrauss / pronouns: she, her

Based in San Francisco, CA.