The Department of Biology is pleased to announce the winners of the third annual Award for Teaching Excellence in Teaching Assistants and Markers. The decision was especially difficult this year due to the quality of the nominated candidates. As a result, the committee decided to allow a tie and give the award to two excellent TAs in Biology: Brontë Shelton and Jacqueline Barnett-Fraser.

Brontë Shelton

Brontë Shelton was nominated for her work as both a marker and a TA on three different courses this past year: BIOL 308, 357 and 306. The nomination letter highlighted her professionalism, accuracy in grading, and the level of engagement she was able to maintain with the students. On top of that, the letter highlights how conceptually different each of these three courses is, with very little overlap in terms of knowledge or skills, and yet Brontë “never phoned it in, and she was always fully prepared.” Finally, it was noted that working with insects (for the Entomology class) was new for Brontë and not something she was entirely comfortable with at first. Still, she never once let that discomfort show to her students, exhibiting a level of professionalism that goes above and beyond expectations.

Jacqueline Barnett-Fraser

Our second winner is Jacqueline Barnett-Fraser, who was nominated both for her work within the department, and for her educational leadership at UBC Okanagan more broadly. Jacqueline is an experienced TA in Biology, having worked with several courses over the past five years, including BIOL228 and BIOL133. Like Brontë, she is an excellent TA who works hard to do her best work in the classroom, actively working to improve her teaching every term. In addition, she has been working to improve the teaching landscape here at UBC Okanagan for TAs and faculty through her work with the Centre for Teaching and Learning (CTL). She has served as a Learning Design Intern, helping faculty with their teaching for a number of years. She has also been heavily involved in the CTL’s TA training program, to the point where she was able to take over and run the entire program this past January, when the education consultant that normally runs the program had to go on leave unexpectedly.

Congratulations to both of our winners, and sincere thanks on behalf of the department for your excellent work to support our students!

The Department of Biology is pleased to announce the winner of the second annual Award for Excellence in teaching for TAs and Markers. This year’s winner is Portiaa McGonigal. Portiaa has been an active member of the Department of Biology since 2019, when she arrived to do her PhD with Dr. Louise Nelson, to study crown gall disease of grapevine. Portiaa has worked as a teaching assistant in a number of very different courses in Biology and Biochemistry, including first-year biology labs (BIOL116), Developmental Biology (BIOL363) and the Biochemistry of Disease (BIOC407). The faculty and staff that worked with Portiaa on these courses agree that she is a caring and conscientious teaching assistant, who excels at creating a safe and supportive environment in her classroom. Students specifically mention how adept she is at communicating complex science and making it easy to understand, and how supported they feel in her class.

Faculty and staff that have worked with Portiaa also note what a strong presence she is in the courses she works with. As a veteran TA, Portiaa knows what is required to make a large, multi-section course like BIOL116 run smoothly, and Portiaa is more than willing to share her experience with those around her. According to Dr. Tristyn Hay, Lab Coordinator for BIOL116, “Portiaa is always willing to help out others, whether it was a new teaching assistant trying to get familiar with the content, or coverage for other teaching assistants when scheduling conflicts arose.”

While Portiaa has spent most of her time at UBC Okanagan during the COVID-19 Pandemic, she has this to say about her experiences this past year, teaching in person for the first time since 2019: “being on this campus has allowed me to flourish as a student researcher and TA, something I believe that has a lot to do with the amazing community of people in the Biology department who are always willing to support and encourage each other.”

Congratulations to Portiaa for winning this award!

The Department of Biology is pleased to announce that Biology’s first-ever TA award for Teaching Excellence recipient is Nathan Earley, an M.Sc. student who was a teaching assistant this past year in BIOL306 (the Ecology of Animals, with Adam Ford) and BIOL308 (Population Biology, with Bob Lalonde). Nathan also has experience as a Naturalist with several groups, including Ontario Parks.

This was Nathan’s first year as a TA, and in his teaching statement, he said the following about the experience “Reflecting on my first bout of formal teaching, I am startled at how fulfilling the experience has been. I cherish working with students, hearing how they understand the theory, filling the gaps where needed, and celebrating the field with a group of young scientists whose potential knows no bounds. I have found that my understanding of these topics has flourished as a result of spending such concentrated time committed to improving learning outcomes for the students.”

Congratulations to Nathan, and thank you to both our adjudication committee, and to those that took the time to apply!