Embedded Files
Student-Centered Teaching
Student-Centered Teaching
EVE 101, Introductory Ecology:
Ecology Memes Assignment!
Field-Based Learning
Field-Based Learning
PLS 147: California Plant Communities field trip to Jepson Prairie Reserve, Dixon, CA
Image credit: Becky Winner, Unsplash
You can download this open-source educational resource here!
Kouba, P. (2026). R Data Lab: Using Forest Census Data from the ForestGEO Network. QUBES Educational Resources. doi:10.25334/7662-CR69
R Data Lab: Using Forest Census Data from the ForestGEO Network
R Data Lab: Using Forest Census Data from the ForestGEO Network
Summary:
The global ForestGEO network has dozens of sites, thousands of researchers, and over seven million trees. That much data can feel overwhelming at times, but we can take advantage of the ForestGEO protocol structure to gain powerful insights from this wealth of information. In this activity, students will focus on one 25.6-ha forest census plot from the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute (Virginia, USA). The goal is to produce summary statistics and figures to help understand the SCBI forest. Students will run pre-written code, complete some fill-in-the-blank sections, and write their own from scratch, with increasingly complex tasks as the lab progresses.
Courses I Have Taught
Courses I Have Taught
ECL 290, QE Support Group Workshop and Seminar – UC Davis, Spring 2024; 134 students (Lead Organizer)
ESP 001, Environmental Analysis & Policy – UC Davis, Fall 2023; ~300 students (Teaching Assistant)
PLS 147L, California Plant Communities Field Course – UC Davis, Spring 2023; 60 students (Teaching Assistant)
ESP 100, General Ecology – UC Davis, Fall 2022; 120 students (Instructor of Record)
EVE 101, Introductory Ecology – UC Davis, Spring and Summer 2022; 196, 59 students (Instructor of Record)
ESP 100, General Ecology – UC Davis, Fall 2020, 2021; ~120 students (Teaching Assistant)
ECL 290, Dendroecology Graduate Seminar – UC Davis, Winter 2020; ~12 students (Lead Organizer)
PLS 144, Trees and Forests – UC Davis, Fall 2019 (Teaching Assistant); 120 students
SPU 25, Climate-Energy Vision for the Future – Harvard University, Spring 2018; 80 students (Teaching Assistant)
SPU 29, Climate Energy Challenge – Harvard University, Fall 2017, 2020; ~60 students (Teaching Assistant)
Peer Learning Communities
Peer Learning Communities
Learning from colleagues and near-peers is an important way to expand and enrich course-based curriculum. In my final year at UC Davis, I founded the QE Support Group (flyer shown at right, below), bringing together 134 graduate students from 39 Ph.D.-granting programs from across campus. By pairing pre-QE students with post-candidacy mentors, and connecting them within a network of peers, the course fostered more equitable sharing of information about one of the toughest challenges of a doctoral program.
As a postdoc at UC Santa Cruz, inspired by Davis Ph.D. candidate Ben Rivera and in collaboration with Dr. Lucas Godoy, I started a new iteration of the Statistics Support Group (flyer shown at left, below). We met once a week to discuss a new stats method or question, sharing ideas, advice, and most importantly, encouragement. The group gives members a chance to get help from a friendly audience, usually folks who've encountered similar challenges in their own stats learning. In statistics as in life, there are things we don't know, but nothing we can't learn!
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse