Teaching Statement

Teaching Statement Good teaching skills are an integral part of my definition of a good academic. I subscribe to the philosophy that one only truly understands a topic when one has explained it successfully to someone else. I greatly enjoy teaching Astronomy, both general classes for non-science majors as well as (under-) graduate courses. I subscribe to the philosophy that astronomy is best learnt through active student participation, through peer interaction and student-teacher feedback. Depending on the size of the class and level of the students, I have found different approaches to evoke student engagement. The Leiden/ESA Astrophysics Program for Summer Students (LEAPS) I have organized the research experience for undergraduates (REU) summer school in Leiden {LEAPS{ in 2014 and 2015. First as the ESA contact for this collaboration between ESA, Leiden Observatory and Industry and secondly as the organizer at Leiden Observatory (http://www.strw.leidenuniv.nl/ summerstudents/). Both summers, the program was a resounding success resulting in scientific publi- cation, collaborations and PhD projects at Leiden for the participants. With 20 positions and 300+ applications each year, this program is set to become a leading REU in Europe. Unique in its approach is that both organization and supervision is solely done by postdoctoral researchers. Experience I have teaching experience with four distinct levels of public outreach, undergraduate non-science majors, undergraduate science majors, and postgraduate supervision of research students. Naturally, each of these distinct groups require different pedagogical approaches. Together with Prof. P. Barthel, I co-taught \The Evolving Universe course in 2003 at the University of Groningen to non-science majors (80 students). And at the University of Cape Town, I have co-taught the third year Galactic and Extragalactic Astronomy course with Prof. R. Kraan-Korteweg in both 2009 and 2010 to astronomy majors and I participated in the Winter and Summer Schools of the National Astrophysics and Space Science Programme (NASSP) which is aimed at postgraduate astronomy majors. My student evalu- ations are generally \good" to \excellent" and I have found their informal feedback to be both useful and generally positive. Undergraduate Non-Major The Astronomy course for non-science majors is ofttimes a well-attended class and requirers an approach akin to public outreach. One needs to balance between comprehensive approach and student interest and engagement. I have found the NASA Center for Astronomy Education (CAE) workshops, which showcase research-based pedagogical techniques, to very useful to inform my teaching practice. It showed how to encourage peer-to-peer instruction, for example through voting techniques, and how to use astronomy educational research literature to inform my teaching practice. I plan to in- corporate the workshop lessons in any future non-science major and introduction to Astronomy classes. Undergraduate Science or Astronomy Major In upper division and graduate classes for science majors, I take advantage of the smaller class size to introduce more classroom discussion in a more seminar-style approach. In such a setting, direct question and discussion moments built into the lecture improve understanding as well as check for the clarity of my explanations. It allows me to tailor the lecture and accommodate and engage students who are not used to discussion or to whom English is a second language. I relied on this approach in my Astro3003 Extragalactic Astronomy course at the University of Cape Town. In addition, incorpo- rating student contributions in the form of papers and especially oral presentation are key for student learning. Graduate Student Supervision Student supervision of a scientific project are both the smallest scale and interactive teaching. During my time as a postdoctoral fellow at Space Telescope Science Institute and the University of Cape Town, I have (co-) supervised several student projects at all levels (see below). My research has many topics for students to work on and the real challenge is to match a student's interests and abilities to the available research topics and help clearly delineate a project. Student projects 2014 Alejandro Lumbreras Calle, LEAPS summer student, Master Level, Are all dwarfs crusty? Dust in occulting dwarf galaxies. 2011 Se Kwon Kim, JHU/STSCI summer student, Master Level, Identifying M-dwarfs in HST WFC3 surveys. co-supervision with N. Pirzkal 2010 Adam Haarhuis, UCT, BsC Level, The dependence of the SNIa dust prior on disk character- istics. Principle supervisor. 2010 Papi Lekwende, UCT, BsC Level, How common are dustlanes in edge-on spirals? Principle supervisor 2007 Kanak Saha, STSCI visiting student (supervisor: R.S. de Jong), PhD Level,, The onset of warps in Spitzer observations of edge-on spiral galaxies. Co-supervised 2007 Jonathan Sick, STSCI summer student (supervisor: R.S. de Jong), Master Level,, Mapping of faint stellar structures in NGC 4631. Co-supervision. 2007 Peter Kamphuis, Kapteyn Institute (supervisor: R. Peletier), PhD Level,, A dust component 2 kpc above the plane in NGC 891. Collaboration. Outreach Outreach to the general public takes many forms, from stargazing nights to press relations at a major research centre. I was fortunate to learn much from the outreach effort at STSCI with Hubble science. Much of my experience is as a speaker at public events (e.g., at the University of Groningen, STSCI, and South African Astronomical Observatory) and teacher at general lectures. I wrote a monthly column for the general Astronomy magazine \Zenit" for several years and individual articles for the general audience (e.g. the Quest article in South Africa). Interaction with the general public is exhil- arating and stimulating and I see it as an integral part of my job as an Astronomer. Teaching References Prof. Dr. R.C. Kraan-Korteweg Dr. M. A. Kenworthy Prof. Dr. P.D. Barthel Department of Astronomy Leiden Observatory University of Groningen University of Cape Town Leiden University P.O. Box 800 Private Bag X3 P.O. Box 9513 Rondebosch 7701 2300 RA Leiden 9700 AV Groningen Republic of South Africa The Netherlands The Netherlands T: +27 21 650 5830 T: +31 (0) 71 527 8455 T: +49-(0)331 749-4064 : [email protected] : [email protected] B B B: [email protected].

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