Teaching Portfolio - John D. Kirwan

Supervision

During my PhD and subsequently, I co-supervised four Bachelor projects and internships covering animal behaviour and eye morphology.

In 2019-2020, I co-supervised a MSc student project based at Lund University, concerning the visual system of chitons. I trained the student in culturing animals, and preparing, running and analysing behavioural experiments, as well as coding in MatLab and R, during summer 2019. I continued to provide guidance until the successful completion of the project in October 2020, especially regarding statistical analysis and interpretation.

In my current role in 2021, I assisted a PhD student with experimental design and statistical analysis for a project concerning the effect of light and other factors on larval morphology.

Laboratory Teaching Aid Roles

Lund University - Sensory Biology (BIOR20). 2013 –2018. I was a teaching aid for experimental labs during this advanced course. I chiefly led an electroretinography lab concerning insect vision, where I graded reports and contributed to improvements in the lab structure.

Lund University – Neurobiology (BIOR58). 2013 –2017. As a teaching aid for this advanced course, I led a lab dealing with compound action potentials in humans and was responsible for substantial updates to teaching materials and equipment.

Lund University – Zoologi (BIOB02). 2013 –2017. I was a lab teaching aid for the undergraduate Zoology course. My part of the labs concerned invertebrates and early animal evolution and development. This lab was conducted primarily in Swedish.

University College Dublin – During my M.Sc. by research (2008), I was a teaching assistant for the undergraduate course Animal Development (CELB30010).

Further Pedagogical Experience

Environmental education. I participated in environmental education activities for the National Trust for Scotland at Newhailes, Edinburgh in 2011 and the Irish Wildlife Trust throughout Leinster in 2012.

Training and Certifications

Teaching and Learning in Higher Education. 15/05/2015 – 30/06/2015. Lund University - Graduate Pedagogy Course (3 ECTS) - Lund, Sweden