University of Wisconsin-Madison
Lecturer, Data Management for Social Science Research, Spring 2021
This course introduces advanced undergraduate students to the data management skills necessary for carrying out research projects using quantitative data. This class forms part of the requirements for the Concentration in Analysis and Research, an optional certificate for sociology undergraduate students that prepares students for careers in applied social research or for graduate-level study. I covered data cleaning, documentation, file management, recoding variables, descriptive statistics, dealing with missing data, merging and appending datasets, processing observations across subgroups, reshaping data, and programming for data management. Students leave the course with the skills necessary to find, clean, combine, and process quantitative data in order to answer research questions. I taught the course in STATA per the Sociology department’s preference, but I am prepared to teach this course in R as well.
Student Evaluation Comments:
"I learned so much from this class; excited to continue on...this class gave me a lot more confidence in my quantitative data analysis skills. Sarah was an incredible, gifted, and organized instructor."
"Her personality can make a boring course interesting and fun."
"This class was very well laid out. I felt that each week was predictable and, if I was unsure of a topic, Professor Farr was always there to help. I felt that the comments on our log files were incredibly valuable, some of the most detailed feedback for my learning which I have ever received. Alongside the open environment created by Professor Farr, those comments made me forget the interaction limits of virtual learning. Incredibly well laid out and containing appropriately challenging material, I would recommend this class to any of my friends interested in learning more about working with data."
Teaching Assistant, Methods of Sociological Inquiry, Spring 2019 - Fall 2020 (four semesters)
This course introduces undergraduate students to a variety of sociological methods and research logics. The topics I covered in discussion section for this course included research ethics, measurement, research logics (inductive vs. deductive), research design, sampling procedures for qualitative and quantitative data collection, basic survey design, descriptive statistical analysis, introduction to the concept of statistical inference (as related to sampling procedures), ethnographic methods, interview methods, and qualitative data analysis. I led twice-weekly discussion sections with students for a total of four semesters and guided students through assignments in which they applied the different methods we learned (e.g., descriptive statistics, survey, ethnographic, interview) to explore research questions.
Student Evaluation Comments:
"She was an extremely helpful TA. She was clearly very knowledgeable and did a great job leading discussions. She always gave great feedback and answered all questions promptly. She also did a great job creating a comfortable environment in discussion and was very engaging."
"I thought Sarah was extremely knowledgeable of sociological methods and I always felt comfortable coming to her with questions about assignments. Sarah was very clear of expectations and effectively communicated the important information about class assignments."
"I had a lot of fun in this course, specifically within discussion. The TA was quite understanding of the struggles or difficulties we might have in the class and really worked hard to address the issues and make them easier for us."
"Sarah is the best TA I've had so far at UW!"
"Sarah was above and beyond helpful with everything and she did a great job! I loved having her as a TA and coming to her discussion section and I learned a lot."
"Sarah, you were a really great TA! You mentioned in the beginning that this was your 5th semester [note: it was actually my 3rd semester] TAing the course and it was very apparent, you were very comfortable and knowledgeable about course material, really knew how to facilitate good discussions, and were super helpful with class projects in office hours and appointments. I don't have much constructive criticism because I think you do quite well as a TA."
"The best, most understanding TA I have ever had."
"Very helpful! The slides used during discussion really helped me understand the instructions for assignments and the discussions helped me better understand the methods used in the assigned readings."
Other Teaching Experience
Prior to graduate school, I worked for four years as a popular educator at the Centro de los Derechos del Migrante (Center for Migrant Rights) in Mexico City. I led dozens of community education workshops with migrants and migrant families, trained migrant leaders as peer educators and policy advocates, and led workshops with local government officials in migrant-sending regions of Mexico. Prior to that position, I worked for 3 years as a part-time classroom assistant and mentor at a public middle school in Chicago where I facilitated small group tutoring and provided mentoring services.