Teaching & Outreach
I have worked and continue to work on several teaching and outreach activities as I believe the work of a scientist shouldn't be confined to the academic publication setting. These activities include working as a Teaching Assistant in Undergrad and Grad level classes ranging both paleontology and geology, as well as outreach activities in Brazil that aim to bring paleontology to the general public and undergraduate students. Below you can find a short description of some of my previous and ongoing activities.
University-level teaching
I have participated as teaching assistant or lecturer for various courses under the wide umbrella of natural sciences. This includes being a teaching assistant for upper-level classes for undergraduate and graduate students in Brazil as well as the University of Michigan and Harvard University. Topics I've taught in the past range from introduction to paleontology to intro geology as well as advanced basin analysis and stratigraphy and comparative anatomy and evolution. My philosophy of teaching and my desire to showcase the incredible natural world we live in have permitted me to successfully engage with students from various levels and from different socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds.
Museum Teaching
My teaching activities also include experience in using museum collections and exhibits as a learning took for undergraduate and graduate students for paleontology and organismal biology classes. Also have participated in projects of the "GeoOficinas" at UniRio where paleontology and geology activities including specimens and replicas are brough to basic- and high-school students in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Further, now at Harvard I am involved in outreach events such as "National Fossil Day" together with the Museum of Comparative Zoology.
Earth Sciences and movies
Science and culture walk hand-to-hand, but to most people this connection is not clear or even imaginable. Given the potential of using mainstream media as means to teach important scientific concepts, I've created, together with Dr. Deusana Maria da Costa Machado, a project we named "GeoQuintas" where we used movies with themes related to geology and paleontology as a mean of introducing basic concepts of these areas to the general public. Movies provided examples of credible and fictional concepts that were then discussed with specialists in a short round table.
Field work teaching
Just as field work is important for my own research, I believe interacting with major processes in the field is a major tool for teaching students about natural sciences. Thus part of my teaching involves integrating lecture-based courses with field activities to better immerse the students in the major topics of the course being given. For example, this includes short field trip organization for EARTH 467 "Basin Analysis and Stratigraphy" in Michigan and Ohio, as well as giving short lectures to the local public when out in the field (e.g. lecturing to local students at Mafra, Santa Catarina, Brazil). I have also led a summer field course for undergraduate and graduate students from the University of Michigan on the geology and environmental science of Brazil.
