Teaching & Innovation

Each year, the Dietrich College of Humanities & Social Sciences selects two individuals out of the entire college for the Outstanding Graduate Student Teaching Award that recognize excellence, dedication, and innovation in teaching at Carnegie Mellon University.

Dietrich College Humanities and Social Sciences’ Graduate Student Award for Teaching
After I teach, as long as one student learned something new, generated a question, or altered a previous mental model, a positive change was made.

Teaching Experience

Invited Guest Lecturer

Lecture	Course	Instructor	Year
Executive Functioning, Prefrontal Cortex Development, and Technology	PSYC2400 Developmental Psychology University of Connecticut	Miller	2023
Immersive Game-based Exercise Interventions to Improve Brain and Cognitive Functioning	PSYC237 Health Psychology Trinity College	Chin	2023
MATLAB NIRS Toolbox for Analysis of Functional Connectivity Data	CIBSR Center for Interdisciplinary Brain Sciences Research Stanford University	Eng	2022
Facing and Adapting to Research Challenges in Graduate School	PSY85509 Research in Psychology Practicum Carnegie Mellon University	O’leary	2021
Developmental Neuroimaging Research Methods	PSY5314 Cognitive Neuroscience Research Methods Carnegie Mellon University	Vargas	2020
Learning Theories and Behaviorism	PSY85102 Introduction to Psychology Carnegie Mellon University	Manke	2019
Statistical Concepts for the Analysis of EEG	STAT36490 Statistics and Data Science Carnegie Mellon University	Freeman	2019
Eye Tracking Methodology and Statistical Analysis	STAT36490 Statistics and Data Science Carnegie Mellon University	Freeman	2019
Social Development	PSY85241 Social Psychology Carnegie Mellon University	Helgeson	2017

Graduate Teaching Assistant, Carnegie Mellon University

Fall 2021 Biological Foundations of Behavior, PSY85219 [Remote Learning] Instructor Lori Holt

• Designed and implemented weekly quizzes and generated open-book, open-ended assignments covering material on foundational topics in cognitive neuroscience
• Guided and delegated responsibilities to 6 undergraduate teaching assistants remotely
• Developed and optimized instructor-student communication through virtual interface
• Ensured accessibility to accommodations for equal opportunity to maximize learning

Spring 2020 Biological Foundations of Behavior, PSY85219 Instructor Lori Holt

• Renovated curriculum from few high-stake tests into several low-stake assessments
• Converted all in-person hardcopy assessments to remote online learning formats
• Managed and delegated responsibilities to 4 undergraduate teaching assistants
• Prepared safety equipment and hazardous cleanup materials for eye and brain dissection labs

Spring 2019 Introduction to Psychology, PSY85102 Instructor Kody Manke

• Collaboratively developed and taught lesson plans and lectures for weekly recitations
• Led weekly recitation classes, office hours, and exam review sessions
• Gave critical feedback and guidance to 7 undergraduate teaching assistants
• Guest Lecture on Learning and Behaviorism:

Fall 2019 Social Psychology, PSY85241, Instructor Vicki Helgeson

• Designed exam and writing assignment assessments and rubrics
• Developed material and practice questions for exam review sessions and delivered lecture
• Delegated responsibilities to 4 teaching assistants and held weekly office hours
• Guest Lecture on Social Development:

A Novel Interdisciplinary Approach

When I'm not conducting research, I'm a group fitness instructor for Les Mills, a program offered in 100 countries around the world. What differentiates this exercise program from others is that the routines are designed through scientifically-based research through collaboration with kinesiologists and exercise physiologists.

Recent research has converged on an intriguing finding: exercise through interaction with a virtual environment improves cognitive skills that are particularly important for academic achievement and success.

School time dedicated to recess has dwindled and few children receive the recommended amount of physical activity. Technology use is prevalent in almost every aspect of K-12 education, and on average, children ages 2- to 4-years old play digital games for 21 minutes daily. As the use of digital games in young childhood vastly increases, effective interventions for fostering cognitive skills raise great interest. Exergames are a generation of widely available video games that promote both cognitive and motor stimulation. Exergames can easily be implemented in everyday lifestyles and have high potential to benefit cognitive skills that are crucial for academic success for students. Exergames are also ideal for use by children because they contain nonviolent content, may be especially useful for children from low socioeconomic households who may not have access to safe recreational equipment, and for children with negative perceptions of exercising around others because exergames continuously adapt the difficulty level based on performance and match children’s individual capabilities.

Cognitive function interventions are used as remediation or prevention of cognitive deficits, so early intervention is crucial; yet little research has conducted training interventions involving exergames with children below school-age. Currently, I am investigating whether exergame-induced training before entering formal schooling may enhance the functioning of cognitive skills, and with carefully controlled experiments determine the underlying mechanisms of why.