Biology
sjara@uoregon.edu | 541-346-5207
Courses: BI160 (From brains to AI) , BI410 (Neural basis of cognition)
In my courses you will:
- Practice foundational, transferrable skills.
- Interact during exciting, participatory class meetings.
I was invited into the Teaching Academy because:
- I participated in the UO Summer Teaching Institute.
In what ways are you working to make your teaching inclusive?
In my courses, students get to relate what they learn in class to what they find important for their careers and for their role in society. As an example, one course includes an activity in which students propose future technologies that would solve problems they consider important in their own lives. The feasibility and societal impact of these technologies get discussed with the whole class, creating a diverse and inclusive platform for promoting critical thinking.
What do you do in terms of professional engagement with the teaching and learning culture on campus or nationally?
I participate in activities from the Science Literacy Program at UO, a program designed to improve science education and to promote critical thinking in students from science and non-science majors.
In what ways was your teaching in this course research-led—informed by research on how students learn and inflected by UO's research mission?
My teaching integrates strategies derived from research in pedagogy. In my courses, I also describe how the topics from class relate to neuroscience research performed in my laboratory (and by other groups at UO), and several students from my classes have joined my lab as undergraduate researchers.
What is the most inspiring or exciting thing about your field of study?
Neuroscience, my field of study, is at a fascinating point in which technological advances allow us to dig deep into questions of the self: why we see what we see, why we hear what we hear, why we are who we are. Three dreams motivate my research in this field. First, that we will improve the way we communicate with each other. Second, that we will be proud of our artificially intelligent "progeny" to come. And third, that we will understand what makes us see beauty in everything and everyone.