Teaching Philosophy

My teaching philosophy is simply “learning by doing.” Through hands-on application of ideas, students increase comprehension and retention of concepts, better preparing them for professional endeavors. I therefore often couple my lecture and laboratory exercises together, allowing the students to take what they have learned in lecture and apply this knowledge in the field. Through actively collecting data and testing hypotheses, students can integrate theory into practice. I view my role as an educator is to facilitate this process.

Overall, I focus my teaching to provide students with the opportunity to:

• Deepen their understanding of concepts in evolution, ecology, research design, and animal behavior;
• Actively engage in real-world experiences to prepare them for future activities;
• Apply their knowledge in a hands-on and interdisciplinary arena; and
• Refine communication skills through oral and written assignments.

​My philosophy therefore demands that my teaching style be highly interactive, engaging students in a dialogue, and often putting students into dialogue with each other. I also believe that teaching should be dynamic – that is, educators should continue to fine-tune teaching styles and activities in accordance to student feedback. I have learned that all students are individuals and learn in their own way. Therefore, I use multiple methods of teaching, including lectures, physical activities, and audio-visuals to reach students. I also take evaluation of my teaching style to heart, and adjust accordingly. 

Classes Taught at Austin Peay State University

General Ecology

Designed to impart an understanding of the general ideas and concepts of ecology, including how physical, chemical and biological factors influence organisms in nature.

Mammalogy

Designed as a survey of mammalian diversity including the study of their natural history, distribution, taxonomy, ecology and morphology with an emphasis on diversity in Southeastern USA. Includes laboratory and field trips.

Biostatistics

Basic descriptive and inferential statistics, frequency distributions and analyses, analysis of variance, linear regression, correlation, nonparametric analogues to parametric methods, relationships between experimental design and data analysis used in hypothesis testing. 

Courses Taught Elsewhere

Biostatistics in Animal Sciences at Hawassa University

Dr. Haase was extremely lucky to teach a course in biostatistics in R at Hawassa University in Ethiopia Fall 2018. The lectures, R and statistic resources, and code/data are available on the R Resources page.