Shawn E. Nordell

Shawn Nordell is an Associate Professor of Biology and Senior Faculty Fellow for the Reinert Center for Transformative Teaching and Learning at Saint Louis University. She received her B.S. and M.S. from the University of Arizona working with Don Thomson and her Ph.D. from the University of New Mexico under the direction of Astrid Kodric-Brown. In her animal behavior research she has studied mating behavior in stingrays, chemical cues, predation risk and mating behavior in guppies, and communication networks in mammals and birds. Her research also encompasses examining student metacognition abilities and the development of successful learning strategies. In addition, she works extensively in faculty development conducting workshops on course management issues and how to incorporate active learning in the classroom for developing and assessing critical thinking skills. She was awarded the William V. Stauder S.J. Award for Teaching in the Natural Sciences.