Ethan Herle

Hello, I'm a Ph.D.-trained life sciences educator with extensive teaching experience in secondary, undergraduate, and graduate education. I'm have experience teaching AP Biology and AP Chemistry to international secondary students, and teaching Biology, Chemistry, Biochemistry, Microbiology, and Biophysics in higher education. I also have experience in curriculum development, lesson and assessment design, laboratory instruction, and adapting complex scientific concepts to students with diverse levels of prior knowledge. I'm strongly committed to making complex science accessible through active, inquiry-based teaching that develops students’ scientific reasoning, critical thinking, and confidence as independent learners.
I teach science not just as a body of knowledge, but as a way of resolving uncertainty. I encourage students to explain their reasoning, evaluate competing explanations, and use evidence to assess scientific claims. I treat mistakes as opportunities to identify and strengthen underlying reasoning, and introduce complex concepts by building from students' existing knowledge and guiding them through the questions and evidence that led to the scientific conclusion. My goal is for students not simply to understand the scientific consensus, but to actively participate in the scientific thinking that produced it.
I had a hard time with some science and math concepts when I first learned them, so I know how hard it can be to learn for the first time, and I know exactly how to get better at working with those difficult concepts until they're easy and familiar, and maybe even one of your greatest strengths like they are for me now.
I hope to see you in class!