| I have taught in diverse contexts over the years. As an undergraduate at Illinois Wesleyan University I TAed Organic Chemisty labs. (Once upon a time I pursued a major in chemistry - until a marine biology field course in Australia lured me to biology!) At the University of Alaska Fairbanks I ran discussion sections for an upper-level Evolution course. And at Cornell I developed curricula and taught lab and discussion sections for Non-majors Biology, Evolution, Vertebrates, and Mammalogy. |
| My experience in Mammalogy was a highlight of my Cornell career because I had the opportunity to design the lab sections from the ground up. The course had been missing from the university's curriculum for over a decade, and my collaborator, Betty McGuire, and I were given free reign to teach the course however we wanted to. Betty handled the lecture portion and I designed and implemented the labs. We integrated sections on fundamental concepts in mammalian biology (e.g., locomotion, dentition, reproduction, lactation, digestion) with sections on biodiversity, creating links between the two by highlighting evolutionary strategies that are characteristic of different taxonomic groups and that serve as exemplars of the various key concepts. |
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Here are some examples of the lab handouts that I produced for Mammalogy:
Lab 1: Skull and Dentition, Monotremata
Lab 2: Skeletons, Teeth, and Metatheria
Lab 3: Reproduction and Afrotheria
Lab 4: Locomotion, Xenarthra, and Euarchontoglires
I drew heavily from several sources when preparing these, including Animal Diversity Web, Hildebrand's Analysis of Vertebrate Structure, and A Manual of Mammalogy by Martin et al. |
| I used several strategies to offer my students diverse ways to learn about mammals. Labs incorporated audio and video, demonstration dissections, mounted skins and skeletons, hands-on use of dichotomous keys, and roughly 400 research specimens from the Cornell University Museum of Vertebrates. Students made weekly outings to seek out mammals and their sign, and they recorded their observations in field journals. I led a winter hike where we examined tracks in the snow to reconstruct some of the local mammalian fauna's daily activities. We visited the Paleontological Research Institute in Ithaca and practiced identifying fossil mammals based on traits that we had studied in lab. |
I thoroughly enjoyed teaching the Mammalogy labs, and I was gratified by the response of my students, who worked hard and gracefully put up with the inevitable hiccups that occur in a new course. Here are some of my favorite comments from the course evaluations:
"This was an amazing course."
"Lots of fun, thanks!"
"[Kurt] was really invested in making the labs interesting and understandable and sharing his enthusiasm for mammals with us all."
"Lab was a great way to reinforce what we learned in lecture. It is great to be able to see the spectrum of diversity and use Cornell's extensive vertebrate collections."
"The lab section of this course was very worthwhile and helpful. I definitely will recommend future students to take the lab."
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