Teaching

Washington State University

Fall 2020

Voting Rights Data Institute

During the 2018 and 2019 summer terms I helped lead the Voting Rights Data Institute organized by the MGGG. This is an 8 week program that has included 80+ undergraduate and graduate students focused on problems related to redistricting. Much of the work was interdisciplinary, combining skills from mathematics, political science, computer science, geography, and many others. Some of the material that I developed for this program have also been used for stand-alone workshops and tutorials:

Introduction to Discrete MCMC (Notes) (Software) This is an introduction to discrete MCMC that starts with the definition of a probability distribution and builds to discussing how these methods are used in redistricting problems. The text is supplemented with a large collection of interactive tools for exploring the concepts in more depth.
Introduction to GerryChain (Notes) ( Software) (Templates) GerryChain is our open-source software for constructing districting plans with random walks on graph partitions. This guide walks through all of the main components of the software and the templates show examples on real-world data.
Introduction to Complex Networks (Notes) (Software) This guide explores how methods from the study of complex networks are useful for analyzing redistricting problems. Updated versions of the notes are included with the software on GitHub.

Tufts Models Reading Lab

In the Spring 2019 term I cotaught a course on Mathematical Models in Social Context with Moon Duchin. This course focused on STS readings and discussion of models as socially situated scientific tools.

MIT IAP 2019

In January 2019 I developed a four week IAP course on Computational Approaches for Political Redistricting at MIT. This course focused on software tools and mathematical principles for analyzing political redistricting developed by MGGG.

Teaching Award Interview

In 2017, I won the Dartmouth Graduate Teaching Award, which is a college-wide recognition for exemplifying the qualities of a college educator. An article from the graduate school focused on my teaching experiences can be found: here.

Dartmouth Math Courses

In Fall 2017 I taught Math 36: Mathematical Modeling in the Social Sciences. This course helps students develop and apply quantitative skills to data and problems motivated by the social sciences. The main assessments in this course were essays that required the students to not just analyze models and data but also to construct compelling arguments based on their results. The course also including a programming component using MatLab and Sage. Much of that code is collected here.
In each of 2015, 2016, and 2017 I taught sections of the UNSG 100: Graduate Ethics Seminar ( course website) for first year Ph.D. students in mathematics, computer science, and engineering. The course places an emphasis on small group discussions and case studies. The focus is on ethical issues in academia, particularly those that are viewed differently in other fields, and many of the case studies that I teach are drawn from contemporary events and situations. Many of the resources that I have compiled for the course can be found here.
In 2017 I taught Math 8: Calculus of Functions of one and Several Variables (course website). Some of the interactive Sage programs that I developed for the students are linked below:
For this class, I also put together some notes with fully worked examples on topics that students found particularly challenging:
In 2015 I taught Math 1: Calculus with Algebra (course website). I strongly support the use of technology in the classroom and frequently incorporate interactive Sage programs into my classes. Some of the programs from Math 1 can be found at the following links (adapted from the Sage @interact example page):
Previously at Dartmouth, I served as a teaching assistant for Math 3 (Winter 2014), Math 12 (Fall 2013), Math 22 (Fall 2014), Math 23 (Spring 2015).

Crossroads Math Team

I volunteer as a coach for the competitive math team at Crossroads Academy in Lyme, NH. Our weekly meetings are centered around developing problem solving skills and preparing for competitions and coached the New Hampshire state Math Counts team at Nationals in 2017. Many of the resources that I have put together for the students are collected here.

In 2015-16, the Crossroads team won the chapter and state Math Counts and Math League competitions as well as placing first in New Hampshire and Northern New England on the AMC-8. In 2016-17, the students repeated as champions in all of these competitions as well as qualifying two students for the national Math Counts competition. The team was equally successful in 2017-18 and again qualified a student for the national Math Counts competition.

LaTeX Workshops 2016-2018

Together with David Freund, I have developed and presented a series of workshops on mathematical typesetting with LaTeX, organized through the Kresge Library and Mathematics Librarian Katie Harding.

High School Workshops

Through the Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth Science and Technology Series I developed and presented two workshops for middle and high school aged students:

As part of the Dartmouth Mathematics Garduate Teaching Seminar I helped develop and run two week-long workshops for local high school students

Mathematics of Games
Mathematics of Secrets