Nominated by Professor Catherine Reid, Head of Geological Sciences
Ben describes himself simply as someone who loves teaching. He says that every day he learns more from his student and colleagues. He is renowned for working very hard to bring out the full potential in the students he works with. As a leader in geoscience education research, he is proud of the community of committed science educators that he has helped develop around the country.
Despite his self-confessed rather casual persona, Ben's teaching philosophy and methodology is highly structured, informed and updated using rigorous science education research. His students and colleagues report he displays a sustained excellence in teaching, and they emphasise his enthusiasm and empathy towards students and his successful use of cutting edge learning techniques. He is driven by implementing changes and practices that benefit student learning and rigorously evaluates those to ascertain whether they help students better understand the geology concepts he is trying to teach.
Ben says he feels confident that the undergraduate and postgraduate students he has helped to educate will become ambassadors for UC and will promote UCs reputation for science education. He says that he senses that science education is undergoing a global revolution and that he feels he can help UC and its students to be part of that revolution.
