Emily Bolger

PhD Candidate, Computational Mathematics, Science, and Engineering Department, Michigan State University

© 2025. All rights reserved.

Teaching

In addition to my research in Computing Education, I was a Teaching Assistant for 5 semesters.

Ethics in Introductory to Data Science and Computing

In collaboration with my collagues, Rachel Roca and Dr. Rachel Frisbie, have been integrating coursework on data and algorthmic bias in our introduction to data science and computing course, CMSE 201. The course serves over 450 students per semester from a variety of disciplines including biology, physics, mathematics, and social sciences.

Most notably, Rachel Roca and I developed an assignment, grounded in literature on data literacy, to help students explore the tensions between impact and intent. Through the simulation “Survival of the Best Fit” developed by Gabor Csapo, Jihyun Kim, Miha Klasinc, and Alia ElKattan, they take a deep dive into the professionally written simulation code. In tandem, they engage with a news article where they must grapple with the implications of being excluded from a job due to gender identity. The assignment celebrates students’ abilities to read and interact with professionally written code while supporting their self-efficacy.

Certificate in College Teaching

During my graduate degree, I completed the Certificate in College Teaching from The Graduate School at Michigan State University. The certificate included a Mentored Teach Project, “Using Visual Aids to Strengthen Student Understanding in CMSE 201” . While teaching in the virtual environment during the pandemic, I quickly realized the challenges of trying to explain code logic to introductory students without ease of drawing or demonstration and how it hindered the students’ ability to deeply understand the tools we were teaching. In this work, we integrate visual aids in course materials to help students in their understanding of coding practices like lists, data frames, and two-dimensional arrays, particularly in relation to indexing with those tools.