Nominated by Professor Matthew Turnbull, Professor Jason Tylianakis, Professor Jack Heinemann, School of Biological Sciences
Sharyn is a positive teacher who understands that students hunger for and need a good grasp of relevant content and develop higher learning by questioning their own positions with new knowledge assimilation. She is constantly evaluating her students' level of understanding and she will effortlessly introduce topics from a different approach; changing her teaching style to simplify complex information to a level that suits various abilities.
Her colleagues report that she takes the time to ensure her students understand the topic and that her approach is 'magic' to watch. She respects the students and works hard on her own delivery to make her explanations better.
Sharyn is proactive in engaging at all levels of the teaching and learning community. Over the past two years, she has led an initiative to engage with the Kaikōura community and Te Rūnanga o Kaikōura to develop teaching and research opportunities at the University field station and she has begun to incorporate the goals and vision of Te Korowai o te tai ō Marokura in her teaching. She also engages in outreach activities to engage with at-risk youth of Kaikōura with science and technology alongside her postgraduate students.
