This class makes ecology tangible for middle-grade students by carefully integrating animal behavior, parasitic relationships, and math to explain a real world phenomenon: "Zombie Cicadas!" Dr. Tory allows students to think critically and drive the direction of the lesson, since scientific thinking often requires open-ended creativity. More than just a lesson on cicada facts, this class allows students to make explicit connections between STEM areas and data-informed reasoning. A small class size allows learners to share their prior of knowledge, hypotheses, and results.

This class is primarily discussion based, with several slides to provide visual information and a general structure to working through some data-analysis as a team. Dr. Tory facilitates learners in making meaningful connections between their prior knowledge, ideas, and interpretations throughout the class. Therefore, learners will have ample opportunities to share their thinking and receive informal feedback by Dr. Tory. This class is designed with Universal Design for Learning in mind, for an inclusive experience.

It is recommended that enrolled learners have had some early introduction to graphing, calculating means/averages, and general reproductive science (i.e., in many animal species, sperm from males and eggs from females combine to create offspring, which is generally how species continue to survive over time). If Excel is entirely new to a learner, send Dr. Tory a message requesting some tutorial instructions for the learner to try prior to class.

Dr. Tory is neurodivergent and welcomes neurodiverse students (ADHD/ADD, autism/autistic, learning disabled, mental health differences, LGBTQ+, etc.) to enroll! Her inclusive and equitable class culture values each learner's voice (whether spoken or typed!) which is why class sizes are kept small and students are invited to communicate by their preferred method (camera anxiety? no problem!). Check out Dr. Tory's reviews and you'll notice her "patience" is a standout theme.