Week 3: Igniting Outstanding Teaching

Introduction

Welcome to Igniting Outstanding Teaching, a four-part professional development series created by the Office for Faculty Excellence at NC State University.  This is the 2026 offering of the award-winning SPARK initiative (Summer Programs: Aspire, Renew, Kindle). In Igniting Outstanding Teaching we are diving deep into the art, science, and passion of pedagogy. Each week, a distinguished member of the NC State Academy of Outstanding Teachers will sit down to interview world-renowned educators from a variety of disciplines.

Together, they will explore what it takes to elevate the educational experience. You can look forward to rich conversations about innovative teaching techniques and how to inspire and engage students.

This week we are talking to Texas A&M-San Antonio biology professor Dr. Davida S. Smith. She is also the  Deputy Director of the National Center for Science and Civic Engagement, where she leads assessment and faculty development efforts. 

Dr. Smyth received her Ph.D. in microbiology from the University of Dublin, Trinity College, Ireland and completed postdoctoral fellowships at New York Medical College, the University of Mississippi Medical Center and New York University. 

Dr. Smyth has published more than 50 articles, chapters, reviews, and editorials on her research. She has guided the research of dozens of undergraduates and graduate students, many of whom have published peer-reviewed articles and presented their work at national and international conferences.

She has received several teaching and mentoring awards and serves on several national grants working to reform STEM education through classroom based undergraduate research experiences and civic engagement. 

Dr. Smyth engages in pedagogical research that aims to improve civic and scientific literacy in biology and integrates real-world context into her classes to improve student engagement and success in science. She was part of the task force that reimagined the American Society for Microbiology Curriculum Guidelines for teaching undergraduate microbiology in 2024. She was awarded the Mercy College Excellence in Teaching Award in 2018. 

Dr. Smith was awarded the Faculty Excellence in Advising award from Eugene Lang College of Liberal Arts at The New School in 2021, the Four-Year College and University Section Biology Teaching Award from the National Association of Biology Teachers in 2022, and the American Society for Microbiology Carski Award for Undergraduate Education in 2025. Dr. Smith is also an ASM Distinguished Lecturer for 2024-2026. 

She was interviewed for this program on June 12, 2026 by Dr. Carlos Goller, a teaching Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at NC State University and a member of the NC State Academy of Outstanding Teachers since 2023.

The podcast music, Peachtree by Jopsy Bayog, is part of the NC State Libraries State of Sound Collection.

Additional Resources

• Using issues of water to CURE your teaching: STEM education is civic education. Davida S. Smyth, Journal of Microbiology and Biology Education
• Doing More with Less, YouTube

Interview Transcipt

Carlos Goller: Good afternoon! 

Davida Smyth: Good afternoon, Carlos. How are you doing?

Carlos Goller: Good. I am doing well. And I see sunshine behind you. Where are you connecting from? 

Davida Smyth: I am connecting from sunny San Antonio, where there is so much sun we could share it with everybody else. I think I should send this sunshine to Ireland, where I’m from. 

Carlos Goller: So we’re here with you today because you have graciously given up part of your Friday afternoon after working with your REU students all this week to tell us a little bit about yourself and how you became this awesome educator and truly a mentor for me, and inspiration. You make me happy every time I learn about your projects. How, how did Davida Smyth come to be the awesome professor? 

Davida Smyth: I love that. Well, so for those of you who don’t know me, I am from Ireland. I’m from Dublin, the capital city of Ireland. And I grew up on the north side of Dublin, in a very normal Irish household. Daughter of a plumber /gas fitter. And, my mum was a stay-at-home mum when I was a kid. She went to college later. And I went to school on the north side of Dublin. I went to a convent in Cabra, where all the schools in Ireland are Catholic schools, as I’m sure you all know, ’cause it’s how we roll.

But I had a great, I had a great schooling. I went to St. Mary’s for primary school, and then Dominic’s for high school, or secondary school in Ireland. And then I went to Trinity College in Dublin for my university training, where I did my degree in microbiology, an undergrad degree in microbiology, and then I did my PhD in microbiology in the same school. All in Trinity College. And I was really lucky. I had a brief sojourn to the University of Bath when I was in my PhD. I did six months in Bath as a Marie Curie fellow, and I also was lucky enough to do a summer abroad, what we call a J-1 fellowship in Boston, when I was between my third and fourth years of my undergrad.

So I got to travel a bit when I was doing my training, which probably set me up for my future in America. 

Carlos Goller: Oh, that is awesome. As an undergrad you were able to… What did you do that year abroad or how long was it? 

Davida Smyth: It was rad. So in Ireland, a lot of Irish students, certainly when I was growing up, a lot of Irish students between their third and fourth years of college, they would’ve done what’s called a J-1 visa scholarship sort of situation.

And I was lucky enough in that I got to go to Boston, to the VA Hospital in Boston for my summer. And I was working with Sophie Michaud. I remember her name, Sophie. She was an infectious disease doctor at the VA, and she was studying Staphylococcus aureus, which I studied as well, and she was doing sequencing of Staphylococcus aureus, and we were doing pulse field gel electrophoresis of Staphylococcus aureus.

But it was fun. It was my first trip. Honest to God, it was my first trip away from my folks, and I had to wash clothes by myself, and I had to feed myself, and I had to do grocery shopping by myself, which I lived at home my whole life, so. And it was really fun. I had to learn about being an American, you know, learning the ropes in America. Washing clothes … You know the top loader machines that you guys have? I mean, gosh, I mean, everything was different. Even the cereal was different. It was like a whole new world to me, but it was really fun. And I learned a lot. I learned a lot from that experience about being away, how things work in a different country, scientifically and otherwise.

It was really fun, and it’s an experience not everyone is lucky enough to get to do that, so I was very privileged. It was great fun to do. 

Carlos Goller: And then you went back, and what made you think, “Oh, it’s time for PhD”? Do you know something? 

Davida Smyth: We’re not quite the same in Ireland in a way because here’s the thing, Ireland’s education system is free. So anyone can go to university. We’re very, very lucky. And so when you do your degree or when you do your high school exams, your end of high school exams, we take exams that basically determine what university you can get into, and you pick your programs, and you kind of rank them. Kind of like med school. You rank all your programs, and then you get to pick whichever. You get picked for the program effectively on the base of points that you get during your exams. So when I did my undergrad, I loved microbiology, and I had a great time in microbiology doing research. And the way that they do your undergrad degrees, you have a capstone in your fourth year where you do a proper research project with a professor.

And my professor was Cyril Snide, and I love him to this day. He was the most amazing professor. We’ll talk about him a little bit more in a minute. I loved working with him. And he talked to me about continuing my training. It’s not quite the same… It’s not done quite the same way as it is here. You just kind of slide into a PhD there, just kind of continue. So it’s not like you go and interview a bunch of different places in that situation. I think I talked to one other professor, but, I really wanted to work with Cyril, so I stayed with Cyril for my PhD, and it was a wonderful experience. I really enjoyed it. I also had some funding. I got a Walsh Fellowship from Teagasc, which is an agricultural organization there, and they funded my stipend, if you like, while I was there. And I did my thesis on mastitis, which is very ironic because I’m a Dublin girl. I come from the city, and I’d say I’d seen two cows my whole life. And then I’m doing a PhD on mastitis. But my parents are from, from the coun- well, well, my dad’s from Dublin, but his family’s all from the west of Ireland. My mom is from County Meath, so they’re used to country, like,… And they grew up in the country, but, like, for me, I was a Dub.

And so again, seen a couple of cows in my life, but it was a great project. I learned how to do sequencing of bacteria and to try and figure out which sequences came from which hosts, and so what type of staph came from which animal. And it was a really great project that led to that fellowship I did in England, and the fellowship I did in England that led to my future in America, ’cause the person I ended up working for was a postdoc in England at the time, and that’s how I got to America. So it was all- That was- … all chance opportunities along the way, do you know? 

Carlos Goller: That was my next question. How did you get where you are today?

Davida Smyth: How did I get to where I am? Well, that’s the thing. So it was all chance, right? I’ll start with … My favorite story to tell is my dad.

If we bring me back to my dad and how I got started, I got into a hospital through my father, who was putting in a fire in a doctor’s house one time. He was putting a gas fire into a lady’s house, and he was talking to this, she was a pathologist at the time, and she was talking about, you know, her kids.

And I guess my dad started talking about Davida, ’cause I… I’m obviously his favorite ’cause, you know, I’m awesome. I joke, I joke. But he’s talking about his daughter, Davida. She’s mad for science. And so he didn’t know she was a pathologist and she basically said, “Does Davida wanna come in and work in the lab for a while?”

So I got to go visit the lab for two weeks, and that got me very interested in clinical micro. So I kind of stayed on that track for such a long time. And then all through my career, it was literally opportunities that arose that I took. So I was offered the chance to go to Boston. I took that chance and got to go to Boston.

And then when I went to the UK, because I was working on staph genetics and genomics, when I went to the UK for my fellowship there, I was doing staph genetics and genomics there. And then my future boss, Dr. Ashley Robinson, who’s in UMMC in Mississippi here, I worked for him in New York. So I moved to New York Medical College for him as his very first postdoc.So he basically said to me, “Davida, I’m starting a lab.” I was in Ireland at the time. I got a job right out of college. And he said, “Would you consider coming to America?” It had never… To be honest with you, it had never really crossed my mind. Genuinely, I was happy enough. I’d got an apartment in Dublin.

I’d started working in Dublin in the Ashtown Food Research Center. So I was, I was set. But then he said, “Would you come to America?” And my nature is to do stuff and set things up and get things going. It’s kind of how I roll, so I saw it as an opportunity to do something cool. I’m young, I might as well.

And so came to the States for my postdoc, and then I did a series of postdocs before I got my first academic position. I was in Mississippi for a bit, and then I was back in New York for a bit. And then I’ve had… This is my fourth academic position. So I was at three institutions before this one.

And here at Texas A&M, I’m a professor in biology, where I teach bacteriology and virology and things like that and have a lab and get to work with cool people like Carlos. So it’s a very nice life. Ah. It’s a very nice life. 

Carlos Goller: You mentioned teaching, and that’s what I want to get to. Because you are to me and many, an inspiration of how to bring exciting stuff into teaching. And can you think of an educator that inspired you, and how did they influence you and your teaching practice?

Davida Smyth: Well, I mean, I’ve always been blessed all through my life that I’ve had fantastic teachers, and I’m not even joking.

I can name the bad teachers on one hand, maybe three fingers. I’ve always had great teachers, and I think it’s part of the Irish thing. So in Ireland, we really esteem good teaching, and we really esteem education. And so I was really lucky. All my teachers are great. But I can pretty much put it down to Cyril Smythe, ’cause he was my teacher when I was…Before I did my PhD, he was my teacher in college, right? And I remember this. We were learning about nasal staph and, you know, staph could live in your nose, and we’re learning about manitol plates. I’m an undergrad. And I distinctly remember Cyril taking that swab and sticking it up his own nose.

And swabbing his own nose right in front of us, and we were all like… But he didn’t care. He didn’t care, and he was just everything about… Like, I remember making membranes and, you know, we’re not supposed to talk about mouth pipetting anymore, but of his generation, they would have mouth pipetted. And so we were purifying micrococcus luteus membranes for enzymes, and he was mouth pipetting, and he was very energetic, and he was really into it. And I was just like, I loved every minute. I could have watched him and I’m not the only one. He inspired so many of us. He was such a good teacher.

When we were learning in classes, he made everything real for us, so it wasn’t just a bunch of facts. It was very much so there was always a story to go with what he was teaching. And so I think he was kind of the epitome of what a good teacher was for me. He ate, breathed, and slept professoring.

He was just wonderful. And so for me, when I teach, like Carlos, I try to teach with a lot of energy and a lot of excitement and a lot of joy because that’s what I… That was the best experience I had, and so that’s what I kinda try to emulate. And keeping it real is really important.

So whatever you’re teaching, students should be able to say why and how and what and, you know, why is this important? Why should I even be here? What’s the point of what we’re learning here? If you can’t answer that question for your students, you’re doing it wrong. So every single thing you’re doing should have relevance for them and require them to think what they’re learning. They can’t just be sitting there like sponges, you know, trying to absorb things. They should really be excited to participate in their own learning process, and I think that’s what Cyril did for me. 

Carlos Goller: And you remember the actions, the swabbing of the nose. And I bet you remember some of those stories. 

Davida Smyth: Oh, yeah. I mean, he was just, he was just brilliant. Like, we were learning about atherosclerosis. Like, I’m a microbiologist, like why would I remember this? We had kind of capstone classes where we’d work through these topics, and he would just…When we were learning about the atherosclerosis, he was making it relevant in the sense he was using specific examples of everything the whole way through. And I remember, I mean, I still… I’m not even joking, I still have my notes from undergrad. I keep them. I have them right there. And I show my students. I said, “This is what I learned when I was your age, and this is how I learned it. It worked for me. I have a terrible memory.” So I said, “So if the fact that I still hold onto this means that it meant so much to me that I… These are precious artifacts when Davida was a student,” ’cause it helped me learn.

But everything was a story. Everything. My teachers were great. Ronnie Russell was another faculty member that I really loved, and he was our applied microbiology instructor. And he had, like, worked with NASA and he had worked with various… Like, I remember him bringing in astronaut food when I was an undergrad and us, like, just being fascinated by this.

They were just, they were very demonstrative in the way that they taught us. And everything was… It was not textbooks. Like, textbooks in Ireland were references. Everything that we did was notes and drawn on the board. It was all very much so tactile and you were doing. And none of it was passive. Like, none of my professors phoned it in. And so for me, it always became that you… Every lecture is a performance. You know what I mean? It’s an experience and the student should be experiencing something wonderful and learning something new.

And so I think that’s the critical thing here. There was always stories. It was great. A great, great experience. And the stories engage the audience, right? Yeah. And they connect some of the history, the concepts. And some of the props…I laugh when I see a prop. I’m bringing a prop to class or something.

Carlos Goller: What do you bring to class to share with people?

Davida Smyth: Oh my gosh, let me think. Do I… What kind of props do I have? So typically I’ll bring, I’ll bring like demo things. Like I’ll bring things to show them. I do a lot more of like demoing for, for things in my lab than I would in my lecture. I typically will have stories that I’ll bring to class. So one of the strategies I do use, and I use this, I pretty much use this all the time. I’ll give you a theme. I’m assuming there’s some microbiologists listening to this. But there’s been a couple of stories around unpasteurized milk for the last while, right? And I’m in Texas, so you know, people have opinions on, you know, whether or not pasteurized milk is the way to go.

But I mean, I’m a microbiologist, so obviously I’m pro-pasteurizing the milk. I mean, what can I say? I’m for pasteurization. So we had a few stories in the news, local, that were related to pasteurized milk. And in San Antonio, people like to eat a lot of artisan style things and stuff that might be a little bit less, pasteurized and other things, and so on and so forth.

So it was fun to bring these stories in. News articles, things that were happening in the news every day. So I will always, not always, 90% of the time start with something in the news today regarding what we’re learning in class. And so that pasteurized/unpasteurized milk thing just happened to be flowing through my entire semester. So I could basically bring along a story each lecture of how the pasteurized/unpasteurized milk story was going throughout the whole semester. And at one point there was a recall of food in H-E-B, which is our local grocery, because of listeria in unpasteurized milk and cheese products.

And so I was like, “I promise you, everything I tell you, it’s gonna happen. It’s gonna happen at some point. There’s gonna be some truth to it. You’re gonna learn about this.” Another one I love was, this is not a real example. When COVID happened, we all remember that, right? But just at the very start of COVID, several of my former students reached out to me. They actually reached out to me. They were like, “Smith, we remember you telling us this was gonna happen.” So I preempted them to it. And not only that, I’d given them so much confidence to know that they were right. When they were encountering things happening during COVID, a lot of my students reached out to me to say, “We remember you telling us this, and I was able to make that argument to my peers and my friends and so on and so forth.”

So I think that the fact that I kind of connect things to real things… It’s the actual things that are actually happening. The students really take a lot out of that. And they remember. They remember. ‘Cause they reach out to me and say, “I remember you teaching us that.” So that’s really fun.

I’ll keep thinking about props, but I’ll give you one that you’re gonna get a kick out of. Wait for a second, I don’t typically bring this, but this lives in my office. 

Carlos Goller: That’s a toilet mug. 

Davida Smyth: Yes, it is. One of my friends bought this for me many years ago, and I keep it in my office ’cause, you know, I study poop and all my students know I do a lot of work with wastewater.

But I fill this with Kisses, Hershey’s Kisses, ’cause they kinda look like little poops, and so when students come to class, they can take a kiss with them and off they go. 

Carlos Goller: Oh, tell us more about the story behind the toilet and wastewater and how have you used that to engage students and teach? 

Davida Smyth: Yeah. Toilets, again, I think you will remember I mentioned that my dad is a plumber, so toilets and me go back a long way, and I’ve always been fascinated by plumbing. So when I was at Mercy College, I encountered a professor, and I’m not gonna remember his name which is terrible, but I had a colleague at Mercy who was doing anaerobic digesters and waterless toilets and things like this in various developing countries around the world.

He had this fantastic project where he’d go off, and he’d help communities build toilets. So for me, he was someone who was teaching it, living it, doing it, making an impact in a real way. He was really inspirational. He was a fantastic guy. And then myself and another colleague from Arena, we were asked to do just a one-off seminar for World Toilet Day. So we all did it from our various perspectives. And then after that, when I moved to my next job, I was asked to do a first-year seminar at the new school where I was working at the time, and I was like, “Of course, I would do a first-year seminar. It would be the greatest fun ever.” And so I said, “Let’s, let’s do this first-year seminar.”

And I said, “I wonder could I do How the Toilet Changed the World as my seminar?” So I built a class around how the toilet changed the world, and I went through, like, history of sanitation up to modern-day technology, outbreaks, biodigesters and fuel from poop, and I went through everything. It was rad. Social justice and, and gender equity regarding toilets and differently abled folks and toilets, everything. It was rad. It was great, and I had lovely readings. It was a beautiful course. And I could sneak in the microbiology too. I could sneak in the science ’cause you’re teaching them about fermentation and digestion and macromolecules and everything.

It was super fun. I taught that class for a few years, and the students had to take a first-year seminar, like they have to, so they would end up in mine, and they’d be horrified, you know, “Oh my God, why am I in this class? It’s about toilets. I didn’t sign up for this kind of thing.” And honestly, by, like, week two they were like, “This is the greatest thing ever. This is so much fun.” And it was a lovely experience, and it was the ideal to be honest with you. It’s one of the best ways to learn about college is in a class like that that obviously doesn’t take itself too seriously in a way, and it’s fun. But I also had a project integrated into the class, which was about building a better toilet, and we focused on porta potties, porta potties and, since I’ve come to San Antonio, we’ve been working on public restrooms and public restroom design and access to public restrooms, and all of this.

So it’s just, it’s a great way to teach. So that’s been the thematic thing that I’ve been doing in my teaching for a while now. And then, in parallel, I’ve been doing work with wastewater since I was in New York with some colleagues from Queens University in New York City. John Dennehy and Monica Trujillo and I, we’re very involved in the wastewater surveillance during COVID. And so since I’ve come here, I’m still doing that here, but we’ve expanded it to more, surface waters and the aquifer and other water bodies across San Antonio, which often get contaminated with fecal matter and pollution and so on and so forth.

So it’s a great way to, again, keeping it relevant, making it real for the students. I mean, there’s nothing more important than clean water and having access to clean water for communities. So it’s a great way to teach microbiology. 

Carlos Goller: That’s an awesome way to keep it relevant. Keep, keep emphasizing things that they’re exposed to, both environmentally in many ways and through the news. And, you’re talking about themes, and our theme this year is igniting outstanding teaching. When did you decide that you would teach in a way that was different than the way you were taught? And that’s a difficult question because it seems you were taught in a way that was awesome.

Davida Smyth: Yeah. I mean, like, I think it’s more a case of just a lot of teaching and how you teach comes from who you are as a person in a way. So I think a lot of it’s intrinsic, you know? I love just being myself and being who I am as a person when I teach. Right? It’s really important to me that the students. And this has always been the case since I was a TA back in the day. So, like I would’ve been Cyril’s TA. So, can you imagine being the TA of the person you love the most as a professor? I mean, it was the perfect, perfect experience to learn how to be a professor. But from then, I always said I want to be real to my students, even if they were almost peers at that point.

But always to be me, be my true, authentic self when I teach, and so that students can relate to me, that they see me as not that different from them, not that far from them. I’ve gone so far as to tell my students: Imagine this. They can call me Davida. Oh my gosh. You know? Oh, horror. That’s really important to me.

And when I’m in the lab, particularly when I’m in the research lab, I really do make an active effort to make them all realize that I’m just Davida in the lab. Just like you guys, I have to clean up after myself. I’m not a princess. I’m one of you. I’m here to make agar like you. I’m here to help you clean up the waste.

We’re all in it together and, and that’s really important. So trying to break down t those pillars that professors often put themselves on is really important to me because I’m just here because I had an education. It’s the only difference is I have a few more years of education than my students.

And I’m very lucky to be in this position. So that’s really important to me. But trying to keep myself, I’m just Davida. It’s like I’m just Ken. 

Carlos Goller: How do you inspire your students? 

Davida Smyth: With, again, I think it’s with the joy, right? So it’s like, um, I don’t think any of my students would ever say that I don’t absolutely love what I do.

Like, they know I love what I do, and I mean, I do love what I do. I love microbiology. I don’t know where it came from. It was literally the first time I saw biospecimens and poop, I mean, and pee and sputum. It was seeing gross things and knowing… Do you know what it is? Seeing things that are gross and knowing that the solution to the patient’s problem is in that sample. Do you know what I’m saying? I think that was the first thing. Like, knowing that the microbiologist is the person who’s gonna determine what it is that’s making that person ill. And then the doctor comes along with the drugs, but it is the microbiologist who solves that problem, you know what I’m saying? They’re the most important. I mean, it’s just fascinating the idea that these tiny little things can kill us and make us sick. And not just kill us, they’re responsible for biogeochemical cycles. They clean our wastewater. They make cheese and beer, and we couldn’t live without them, you know? All our vitamins and such. It’s there, it’s just, I think microbiology as a subject is itself inspiring. So you’re starting with this ridiculously inspiring topic, and it’s your job just to peel away the layers for the students so they see it as inspirational too. 

So I always say that my job is to infect them. And people think this is corny, but it is, it is what I’m trying to do. Infect them with a lifelong love of microbiology. That’s my goal, is to help them love microbiology, and see microbes as allies and friends and creatures just like pandas and koala bears and other things on planet Earth. Like, microbes are cool. Like, how could you not love them? 

Carlos Goller: One thing I’ve been thinking about, and you made me, made me think, I’m also a microbiologist. I love the microbes around me. And one thing I keep on hearing about this interdisciplinary or integrative or transdisciplinary or multiple perspectives, and, um, one of my teaching mentors, Pat Marsteller, used to always say case studies. And case studies had the scenario and the hook. And then you bring in or encourage students to bring in the different perspectives and visit this issue or question from multiple disciplines. I love how microbiology and public health and water and toilets have so many angles and so many disciplines you could bring in.

Davida Smyth: Well, that’s, that’s what I was saying about the, the, that toilet-if we go back to that toilet class. Like, I used to have the students, you know, I would bring the students to the… This is one of the most low-hanging fruit for any educator that’s listening. You have to look for things that are right on your doorstep because there’s resources right in front of you that you’re probably not even thinking about.

So when I went to the new school, they had a green roof that none of the faculty had ever gone to with their students before, right? They’d never gone there. It was right there, and it was like, “Can we do a tour?” And they were like, “Oh, we don’t do tours.” And I go, “But why? It’s a green roof. Why wouldn’t you?” So that was the first time. Like, they would go to other green roofs, and I was like, “But we have a green roof. It’s right there.” We had a water plant and a water chiller underneath us, right? Our own water plant in the building, so of course I brought the students. And then when I was doing the tour, who did the tour? The operators, the facilities guys did the tour, right? So I think you have to show students that there’s learning opportunities everywhere, everywhere all around you, and it’s easy and it’s right there. So, I remember having my students do a project where we looked at the cafeteria, just as an example of where we could do more sustainable practices on campus.

I know lots of us have done this before, but we just brainstormed on the board all the different ways we could approach sustainability in the cafeteria, and then we came up with a series of questions, and then I brought in the facilities people on campus to argue whether or not these things were feasible with the students.

It was rad. I just let the students hear. Ask them your questions. Like, why don’t we have cups and saucers, like, and wash them with dishwashers instead of using plastics? These kinds of things. Could we use compostable containers for getting takeout food or whatever?

And they had their whole list of things as to why, and then the person they got to argue with, with the person who does the decision-making for the college. It was rad. Stuff like that. I mean, there are things you can do that don’t cost the earth but give the students opportunities to engage with things beyond what’s happening in the classroom.

It’s really, really important. And so if they start to see… Like bringing it back to the cafeteria, the public health consideration of washing dishes, like, that’s legit. So they were like, “You know, we’d have to make sure that everything was clean, and it would change how we’re doing things. And takeout containers and reusing containers and washing reused containers and having cups and sharing cups and…” Like, they had answers for everything, but again, it brought it back to quality control, quality assurance, safety, food safety, all this kind of stuff. And again, what is that if not microbiology?

So they began to see it as it’s way bigger than what they’re learning in class. So I think that’s really important. And to your point- They need to see that microbiology is everywhere from the point of view that the plumber is also thinking about microbiology, right? And the person who’s doing the accounts is maybe indirectly, but they’re thinking about microbiology too.

So I mean, like you have to be thinking that microbiology is everything and impacts all of us. So it is super interdisciplinary. It’s probably one of the most interdisciplinary fields, I think, in the sciences. 

Carlos Goller: Just this morning, we were talking about field trips and taking, in this case, it was first year students, to a nearby conservation area and learning about conservation efforts, and then someone mentioned things that are on our campus. And, and that’s what you just said resonates with me because there are things on our doorstep that we don’t realize, and the field trip may just be a walk down the street or a campus trip. 

Davida Smyth: Well, one of my favorite things,  I’ll take a picture of this, and I’ll send it to you, and you can share it with your listeners if you’re able to. On the corridor to my lab, our previous president, she really loved art, so she has pictures. We have fantastic art all through our campus everywhere. And outside my lab- and this is terrible ’cause I’ve, I told you I’ve no memory at all, I forget everything, but there’s a beautiful picture, really big picture, painting outside my lab- That is basically supposed to represent the synthesis of research.

So it’s a giant, big green picture with black kind of swirly, messy, scrawly kind of design on it. And then at the top right corner is just this tiny little red spot, which is supposed to represent kind of, synthesis of scientific information and thought and coming to a realization and finding your result.

And it’s, to me, it’s the most fantastic representation of science I’ve ever seen, ’cause you have to get through all that mess. Just walking the students around to look at the art is something that most science professors would never even think of, right? Let’s be clear. You wouldn’t think about it. But if you were to just stop and look around you and imagine, “What could my students take from a moment, just a moment in the day of looking at one of these pictures?” Like, there’s huge learning opportunities by just pausing and reflecting and thinking for a minute, and we just don’t do, we just don’t do enough of it. So one of the things Carlos will know about, and maybe some of your listeners will know about, we- I’m part of an organization called Sensor. Just shameless plug, but what Sensor will do is we do workshops, and one of the workshops we do is about designing a sensor course. The way that we design that course, or the workshop, I should say, is that we invite people from all walks of life on campus to come.

So we invite people from the library, from the civic engagement center, from a first-year experience, whatever it is, and we put them sitting in tables randomly. We don’t let you sit with the chemists or the biologists. You’re put sitting in random selected tables, so you’re with a mishmash of people.

And you have those people design a hypothetical course together, right? And when they do that, you begin to see there are mad resources on campus that you didn’t know existed, right? You might have an agreement with this museum where you’ve got a free partnership there, or such and such knows the curator or whatever it is.

And by having those kinds of workshops, you begin to see that there’s really great resources right here on campus where students don’t have to drive, you don’t need to pay for parking, you don’t need a subway pass, whatever it is, and it doesn’t take much time away from class, ’cause getting to this, to the field trip can be annoying, right?

But you’re gonna have stuff right on campus, and you have to figure out ways to do that. But that kind of a workshop where you invite everybody, come learn, share your resources. Even if it was resource sharing day, whatever it was, that would be a great, great approach to finding what’s right there to use in your class.

Carlos Goller: If you could go back and give your younger self advice about teaching and working in higher education, what words of wisdom would Davida share? 

Davida Smyth: Well, it’s the same words of wisdom we all get, right? And that is, even though I told you all at the start of this that you have to say yes to every opportunity, just as equally, you have to learn to say no to some things too, right?

So I think Carlos and I, we’re probably guilty of this. We try to jump at everything and do everything, and sometimes you’re gonna get tired, and you’re gonna get exhausted. So the bit of advice I’d give you, and it’s the same bit of advice suppose I would’ve gotten myself, is that you have to find ways that you’re strategic in the sense that what you’re doing fulfills many buckets. So I’ll give you a classic example. So a lot of my colleagues, this does not occur to them, but when you’re designing a research course, for example, right, you’re designing a course, you want it to be a CURE [course-based undergraduate research experience].

One of the things that I’ve done is I’ve made sure that the cure, and Carlos and I do this all the time, you make sure that the cure is done in such a way that the data that you’re generating when you’re doing this is preliminary data for you for grants. Especially when you’re starting. When you’re a new professor, you don’t have a lot of resources. You may not have any resources, let’s be honest. You may not have anything. But you do wanna start applying for little grants here and there so you can get yourself going, right? So if you design class so that you’re using a kit and you’re analyzing some sort of a data set that you need for your grant, and you can have the students help you to do that, that’s a great way for you to start gathering preliminary data for yourself, and it’s a way that you can use course funds and such to fund yourself to get yourself going.

So this is a thing. So yes, I know I told you to take every opportunity, and I still say that’s true, right? Let’s be honest. But you also have to be strategic in as much as you can be about what you do so that it’s not overburdening you and you’re not overextending yourself, but that you’re trying to get as much as you can out of what it is that you’re doing.

And Carlos and I are good at this, too. We don’t look at our classroom as just teaching. We look at our classroom as if it’s a laboratory and you’re learning – it sounds terrible a way to put… I shouldn’t put it like this, but teaching is an experiment, and you’re using every opportunity when you’re teaching to learn a new way of exploring a concept or an idea with your students, and some ways are better than others.

And that is an experiment. You’re gonna try something and see if it works, and then you’re gonna test it and test it multiple times, see what the outcomes are. That is an experiment. So when Carlos has workshops on discipline-based education research, all you listeners out there, go to them. Go to them because not only can you be doing some preliminary data in your lab, you can be also gathering data on student learning in your lecture in your lab, so that can also lead to grants or papers or a new direction in your research. So be thinking about that. So be strategic. Always think about what you’re doing. Is it gonna help you get where you wanna go? That’s really important. 

Carlos Goller: I like that. Sometimes have to put the brakes on now and think, “Okay, that sounds really good.” But… And how much can I give? 

Davida Smyth: It’s hard ’cause, I don’t wanna say no. It’s very hard for me to say no. It’s very, very hard. And so I’ve learned to say no now, but I’m, like, in my mid-40s, it’s easier to say no now. But I think back then, I would always do whatever was asked of me. And again, it’s an Irish thing as well. You always help. You always try to help. You always help. But there does come a time when you can’t. Your help isn’t very good help, so you have to be saying to yourself, “Am I actually gonna be helpful, or would it be more beneficial to my students if I focused on this instead?” And that’s probably really important. You have to think about yourself at some point. 

Carlos Goller: What brings you joy? And we were just talking before recording. I love being in the lab and teaching a new class where I learn with the students.

Davida Smyth: Really important. Yeah. I would take your classes, Carlos. 

Carlos Goller: We would learn together. Here’s a question for you. And I’m gonna go back to your notes from undergrad, because I am really curious. You made me think. You mentioned earlier you treasure and you still have, and I still have, except my mom is moving and she’s getting rid of some of my old notes. But if you were to look at your notes you took as an undergrad and offer advice to current students with new technologies, what would, what would you do? 

Davida Smyth: Actually, I want your opinion on this, ’cause I’m actually talking about this right now. This is hilarious. So I use, I won’t say concept mapping ’cause it’s not the right term. I use mind mapping in my classes all the time. So when I was, when I was an undergrad, and this is part of the notes thing, you know, whenever you write notes, your hand starts to cramp. And I know some students will type their notes or whatever, but a lot of us still write with our hands, and when you’re writing a lot, you do start to get cramp eventually. And for some students, they learn by writing, and I do. I’m one of those types. I have to write it down. Even if I’m reading something, I’ll have to write it down. And I’ve tried using online tools, and I use Hypothesis for annotation. I still do. But for me, nothing beats writing it down. I need to write it down. So when I have students at the start of class, when I’m getting myself ready, as I’m getting my news story set up, one of the things I always have my students is, I have them mind map a concept. So say today’s lecture is microbial growth, just as an example. I have them go up to the board, and I say to the students in groups of four or whatever, I says, “I want you to write down, brainstorm everything, every concept and idea you have about microbial growth. What comes to mind when you think of that term?” And they will go to the board, and then they mind map it. They’ll start saying, you know, pH or temperature, or they might draw the growth curve or whatever it is, but they’ll put up everything they can think of. And I say, “So is this everything that comes out of your head when you think of that word?” And they say, “Yeah.” I give them about five minutes, and then I make them sit down. And then at the end of my lecture, I make them go back. And so then they write down all the things they can think of. And it’s because it’s a mind map. It’s not whole sentences, it’s just words with connections, right? Like, like a concept map. And that’s what I did. So when I was studying, same thing. I would take my notes, I’d have my beautiful notes. But I didn’t have the energy to rewrite those notes out a million times. So what I would have is… And I still have these, this is what I have over here. I have a top sheet, which is a mind map of my notes.

So I would study my notes, and I would study, study, study, study. And then I would try to remember what I called the major concepts and themes of my whatever. So for example, I’m trying to think of one. Say, the growth curve, same thing. Instead of writing down every single stage of the growth curve, I could reduce stationary phase into stationary phase, the word, and I’d still have stationary phase in my head because I’d studied that.

But I remembered stationary phase is important, which order it went in, and so on and so forth. And I’d have this beautiful little kind of spidery looking mind map thing, and that became what I studied. I would take that mind map and I would stick it on my wall. I’d be getting dressed in the morning and I’d look at my mind map, and then I’d be brushing…You know, I’d be getting ready at night and I’d look at my mind map, and then I might tear down the mind maps and draw it, draw it again. But that’s how I studied. So I’d have a ream of paper and I’d just draw my mind maps, and that really helped me remember. So concept mapping, mind mapping, whatever you wanna call it, I’m a big fan. It’s one of the things I use to study. 

Carlos Goller: I’m glad you mentioned that. I still use physical notes, lists, and I love my pen. And I have students concept map, and just this summer, a student took a class in the spring, which was a seminar, and took this summer class with me that was a lab, and they mentioned that in their final project they made a concept map because they had learned that it clicked with their way of reviewing concepts. And that made my day today. I said, “Oh, good.” Great to hear. They connected from this seminar, this approach that we are using, they used it for their final project to put everything together. 

Davida Smyth: That’s awesome. Yeah. And I genuinely do think, nowadays, today’s student is so attached to devices. I mean, we’ve seen it for the past 10 years or so, but today’s student in particular is very much so attached to devices. I make my students do written answers on exams. All right, don’t go mad, they’re easy. They’re not that bad. But I still make my students write. But even just writing for the students just for an exam, they’re like, “Oh,” ’cause they’re not writing anymore. So I think, like, I think writing though – it makes you kind of try to put down what it is that’s in your head as opposed to these multiple choice exams. I’ve never been a fan. So that’s something I bristled against when I came here first, ’cause exams in Ireland were always written for me. And so when I came to the States and we were using other types of exams, it took a long time for me to get my head around multiple choice. And so now that I’m teaching kind of more advanced classes, I tend to make them write everything. But I think writing it down is, you write to know. I think it’s important. I do think it’s important. 

Carlos Goller: That leads to my last question. What resources or tips would you identify for someone who is new to teaching? 

Davida Smyth: Oh, boy. Well, for the biologists, And again, I’m biased here ’cause I’m a biologist. And it’s the same thing I’d say Carlos would say to all of you, is to find your community, which is really important, right? So the community is going to be… For me, it was Sensor first, but then it was BioQUEST and my lovely colleagues at BioQUEST, right? QUBES, the folks at QUBES, right? But there’s loads of resources that are out there in your discipline.

And so the first thing to do would be just, like, literally… I mean, we have AI now, so we can use that, but I don’t recommend it. Try and just find your local communities that’s related to your discipline. So ASM, the American Society for Microbiology, has a really robust education division. And they have tons and tons and tons of resources, from webinars to curriculum guidelines to their journals.

They have journals devoted to education, so you can find exact courses. Like, you can read plenty of Carlos’ papers that are right there for you. So I would say it’s find your community. That’s the most important thing, right? That’s the first thing. And then the second thing I would suggest to you is find a few mentors.

So Carlos mentioned this. Carlos and I were matched through a grant-funded mentorship program. And to be honest with you, I may have been his mentor just ’cause I was a bit further along, but we mentor each other. We absolutely mentor. It’s a reciprocal mentoring situation, right? But I have other mentors as well.

So I have mentors for everything. So I’ve mentors from, how to deal with difficult colleagues to making a decision in my career to, someone who could help me with grants. I’ve multiple mentors, and each of the mentors plays a different role in my life, right? So they help me at different stages of my life, but they’re all the same. They’re the same mentors I’ve had the whole time, the same people I always go back to. There’s always going to be somebody wise and experienced and who can help you make decisions, and they don’t have to be… All right, this will be shocking for you. They don’t have to be the ones they assign to you.

So sometimes your department is gonna assign you a mentor. That can work or not work as the case may be. Sometimes you have to seek those mentors that are going to be the right mentors for you at that stage of your career. And as I said, some of them will work out great. If they don’t, you don’t have to stay with them forever.

But some of those mentors will become lifelong colleagues and allies for you, who will be there for you at a moment’s notice if you ever need them, and I think that’s the most important thing. So you’re gonna find your connection, your community. Very important. You need to have the community around you.

And the second one is you need to have really solid mentors who are there for you whenever you need them with the advice that you’re looking for. And if you find the right mentor, you have a lifelong friend there, as Carlos does with me. It’s true. 

Carlos Goller: Thank you. Likewise. Yeah. And I love, I love the idea of community, and ASM, we mentioned, is trying to build more communities that engage new teachers. CUBES, other societies. I’ve been really welcomed by ESA, the Ecological Society of America. They are fantastic and welcoming. So find your community. 

Davida Smyth: It’s really important. And, like, sometimes, the… Part of the reason being, too, is you’re, you’re gonna have community in your department, right? You will. But that’s not always the most helpful when you’re starting, ’cause you don’t know everybody, and, you know, you have to find your way in your department. But when you have that community outside, you can talk to them about things you don’t wanna say, perhaps, you know. Like, you’re, you’re struggling with something internally something’s happening in your class and you don’t really feel comfortable, right?

But, you can also find… This is shocking, too. You could, you could have mentors at your institution, and they don’t have to be from your department, shockingly enough, you know. You might have someone from the English department who you get along with, and they can advise you. And that’s really important.

So I would just say don’t be alone. Don’t be alone. You’re not alone. You’re never alone. There’s always someone who will help you. And so do that. That’s the most important thing. And as I said, you know, all of the communities. Like, I’ve gone to APS, you know, my friends from ACS. APS is physiology. The chemists are, believe it or not, the chemists are lovely. You’ll find people out there. And, to Carlos’s point, the disciplines are meaningless. Let’s be clear. So, you know, your best friend could be an English literature professor in, in higher ed. You do not have to stay in your lane either. So your mentor can be anybody, and with any purpose and any function. It can be anyone. You just need to find the right one for you.

Carlos Goller: I think I did. I found a really great mentor. Professor Smith. Yeah. Thank you this wonderful conversation. Lots of tips. And it’s always inspiring. 

Davida Smyth: Oh, you too. You- You inspire me every day too, you know it.

Carlos Goller: Thank you. 

Davida Smyth: You’re welcome.

Credits

The SPARK Team 2026

• Maria Gallardo-Williams, Producer/Writer
• Janet Del Pinal, Promotion/Graphic Designer/Announcer 
• Kyle Miskell, Audio Engineer
• Kassidy Wood, Social Media Promotion
• Jopsy Bayog, Music