practices | Hannah H Chu

teaching began for me as a way of learning. i understand ideas most when I can explore them in relation, asking questions together, discussing differing interpretations, and making sense of complexity in community. i think of classrooms as living systems shaped by curiosity, trust, and care.

my teaching practice draws from active participation, creative making, and embodied practices. i design learning experiences that invite inquiry and play, value the knowledge students already carry, and use visual storytelling and technology as tools for access rather than shortcuts. i aim to cultivate spaces where science feels alive, collaborative, and deeply connected.

see examples of my teaching practice

courses taught by Dr. Hannah Chu at John Jay College

BIO 102-B - modern biology I - paced

BIO 103 - modern biology I (molecular & cell biology)

BIO 104 - modern biology II (organismal biology)

SCI 100 - first year seminar for STEM students

"I feel that the way I teach has been fundamentally structured by the fact that I never wanted to be an academic, so that I never had a fantasy of myself as a professor already worked out in my imagination before I entered the classroom. I think that’s been meaningful, because it’s freed me up to feel that the professor is something I become as opposed to a kind of identity that’s already structured and that I carry with me into the classroom."

bell hooks, Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom

i have always hesitated to call myself an artist. instead, i see myself as a creative, moving freely between mediums as a way of learning and relating. my practices span digital illustration, watercolor, block printing, knitting, and whatever whims my algorithm throws at me. lately, printmaking has become my home base, but my practice remains open and experimental.

Nine-spotted_Lady_beetle_(Coccinella_Novemnotata) 1.png

infographics

writing

more images on the way...have to track all of them down! don't be me...stay organized!

graphic design

side quests

yogic philosophies anchor all my creative practices. it has taught me the necessity of rest in a culture that constantly demands productivity and urgency. through movement, meditation, and stillness, i continue to learn and unlearn how to move against the rhythms of dominant culture rather than internalize them, finding value in slowing down, pausing, and choosing presence over output.

through this practice came joy and detachment. joy as moments of ease, play, and connection in the body and in community. detachment as learning to loosen my grip on outcomes, expectations, and performance. these lessons shape how I create, teach, and relate, reminding me that care and curiosity often emerge when we allow ourselves to soften and let go.

cultivating belonging in the sciences through creative practices

growing up in a big city, i felt disconnected from the natural world, eventually rediscovering it through creative practice and communal experiences in nature, particularly group hikes with others deeply attuned to ecological systems. one of my core research interests explores how integrating creative practice into scientific inquiry can reconnect students to ecological systems and their own place within science. i examine how visual storytelling, artistic interpretation, and community-engaged experiences influence how students make sense of ecological data, uncertainty, and complexity. my research asks how art–science approaches can foster deeper conceptual learning, strengthen STEM identity and belonging, and expand who feels empowered to participate in scientific knowledge-making. more broadly, this work positions science education as a relational practice rooted in community, justice, and collective care for the planet.

community ecology in ephemeral and fragmented habitats

as a child, i was drawn to questions of death and impermanence. that early fascination evolved into a scientific interest in ephemerality as an ecological force. my research examines how communities that rely on ephemeral resource patches assemble. using blow flies (Diptera: Calliphoridae) as a model, my work asks how dispersal and environmental filtering interact to shape community assembly, how spatial and temporal scales mediate these processes, and whether assembly mechanisms shift predictably across seasons and landscapes. i further explore how these organisms adapted to naturally fragmented, short-lived habitats can inform our understanding of how other species may respond to human-driven habitat fragmentation.

see more of my research here