Daria Ahrensmeier
Early Career Award for Excellence in Teaching, 2023
Daria Ahrensmeier creates dynamic learning experiences for students, encouraging them to learn about learning, to assess their own progress, and transfer what they have learned to new contexts. Beyond her own classroom, she builds teaching and learning communities including instructors and teaching assistants, and involves students as partners in course development inviting their feedback and new ideas for inspiration.
Ahrensmeier started specializing in physics education and educational development while doing postdoctoral work in non-equilibrium quantum field theory and adiabatic quantum computing. She has co-created and taught lecture courses, labs, studio physics materials and labatorials for students in physics, engineering, mathematics and other programs at universities in Canada and Germany. As collaborator or co-PI on several Teaching and Learning Development Grants, she has studied the effectiveness of those instructional designs and shared the findings in publications and at conferences.