Trenton Agrelius Assistant Teaching Professor

Academic Interests:

My approach to teaching focuses on creating a highly engaged classroom where information is accessible, and students know I am invested in their success. Creativity in science is something I value and strongly encourage because it can make information more accessible in somewhat sneaky ways. I enjoy developing teaching tools and employing pedagogical approaches that allow students to learn through nontraditional means like gameplay. This changes how information is presented to, attained by, and used by the student thereby maximizing student learning in a low stake environment. Students respond to challenges as the instructor introduces and expands on interactions between complex topics like ecological concepts and molecular mechanisms that drive them.

Undergraduate research, in my opinion, is a natural extension of classroom teaching. I believe that student research is a fundamental part of the learning process that gives a tangible dimension to the concepts taught in lectures. Science is a process of discovery that help explain why processes work the way they do. Involving students in undergraduate research allows me to teach an additional layer of information as well as show that failure or mistakes in the lab are both acceptable and valuable as learning experiences.

My research interests rest primarily within the field of epigenetics and the Daphnia system. I use a multitude of molecular techniques to address evolutionary phenomena in an ecological context. I am fascinated by the potential role of epigenetic mechanisms on changes in gene expression induced by the environment within- and across-generations. Essentially, how can environmental cues encountered by one generation alter the phenotypes of multiple generations in the absence of the original cue without altering the nucleotide sequence.

Biography:

• Assistant Teaching Professor, Department of Biological Sciences, Notre Dame, IN, 2022 – present
• Instructor of Record, Department of Biological Sciences, UofSC, Columbia, SC, 2022
• Research Assistant, Department of Biological Sciences, UofSC, Columbia, SC, 2016 – 2022
• Teaching Assistant, Department of Biological Sciences, UofSC, Columbia, SC, 2016 – 2020
• Biology Adjunct Instructor, Allen University, Columbia, SC, 2014 – 2015
• Reaching Assistant, Marine Science, UofSC, Columbia, SC, 2014 – 2015
• Teaching Assistant, Marine Science, UofSC, Columbia, SC, 2012 – 2013
• Ph.D. 2022, Biological Sciences, University of South Carolina, SC.
• M.Sc. 2015, Marine Science, University of South Carolina, SC.
• B.S. 2011, Biological Sciences, Augusta University, GA.

Professional Activities:

• Gerald and Antona Wilson Award, University of South Carolina, SC, 2022
• Jeffrey Barnesdale Memorial Teaching Fellowship, University of South Carolina, SC, 2020
• Incubator for Teaching Innovation, Univeristy of South Carolina, SC, 2019-2020
• College of Arts and Sciences Advisory Diversity Committee Chair, University of South Carolina, SC, 2018-2020: I am the College of Arts and Sciences