plans

I am interested in teaching my favorite course, The Process and Publication of Science, at universities in towns that I enjoy and choose to rent an apartment in.  This course is run as a discussion group, which I previously taught at both Colorado State University and Makerere University (evaluation letter).  The general syllabus is here.  All course materials will be provided as pdfs to students online or by flash drives.  For this course I draw on my experience from publishing 119 papers, reviewing 217 manuscripts, and serving as associate or subject editor for American Journal of Botany, Cladistics, PhytoKeys, and Systematic Botany, for which I edited a combined 326 manuscripts.

I am interested in presenting fun, accessible science demonstrations at rural elementary schools in the developing world, primarily using locally obtained supplies that I then donate to each school.  By doing so I hope to introduce some of these students to a different way of viewing the world than they may otherwise be taught.  The best teaching compliment I received was from an Ethiopian researcher who said, “We are not used to being taught this way.  It is a new way of thinking for us.”  She did not view my way of teaching as better—just different.  Introducing someone to a different way of thinking is a fundamental contribution.