Anything Can Be Easy

Avery B.

I am a rising junior at Loyola University Chicago majoring in cognitive and behavioral neuroscience with minors in math and physics. My coursework includes advanced topics in math, biology, psychology and physics. I am currently conducting research using mathematical methods to model protein concentration dynamics in Alzheimer's disease. Additionally, I work in a neuroscience lab end employ EEG and TCS techniques and write code to assist with collection and analysis of data.

When it comes to teaching, I firmly believe that the most crucial step is thoroughly motivating why a concept should be learned. In fields like biology, this is a little more straight forward, however, in math or introductory physics, and even sometimes psychology, the concepts can seem far more abstract. I like to first convince the student - or sometimes ask them to convince me - why something is useful to learn in the first place. This aids in the building of mental constructs which leads to much better retention over time and more efficient consolidation of information when building upon concepts in the future. I also believe that students should be exposed to multiple interpretations of the same problem/model/perspective to discuss their qualities, and ultimately have the student decide which approach makes the most sense to them, and having them reflect on how they came to this conclusion.

In addition to my ability to contextualize and adaptively introduce concepts to students, I also believe it is very important to teach students how to learn things on their own. One of the most important topics is providing guidance to students on how to use technology to assist in their learning, and encouraging the development of healthy habits to ensure these tools are used to enhance understanding and not used as a crutch.