Teaching

I equip the next generation of biologists with the quantitative research skills modern science demands. Modern biology is a big-data science, yet most graduates arrive with little training in data organisation, modelling, analysis, visualisation, or reproducibility. I teach these as core research skills.

Teaching philosophy

Learning to code and to reason with data is hard, and my teaching is built around four principles:

  • Eat dessert first — give students an early taste of success to build engagement before the hard concepts arrive.
  • Reduce cognitive load — introduce one concept at a time, sequenced deliberately.
  • Empathy for the novice — acknowledge openly that this is hard, and build a supportive, inclusive room.
  • No student left behind — use active strategies so I can reach students who are stuck, in the moment.

Courses

BEES2041 - Data Analysis for Life and Earth Science

I convene this core 2nd year course. Students develop core skills in the manipulation, statistical analysis, and communication of data. Using examples from the biological, earth, and environmental sciences, students examine the role of statistics in answering the three main types of scientific questions, and gain experience applying common methods, using the R programming language.

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BEES0006 - Research Project in BEES

I supervise students undertaking an independent research project, where they work as a real data scientist — developing a question, analysing data, and communicating findings — in collaboration with the lab.

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BIOS2051 - Flowering Plants

In this 2nd-year course, I teach a module on Angiosperm life-history strategies and functional traits, looking at similarities and differences across species.

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R and Reproducible Analysis

Each year I run a two-day short course, offered through Stats Central, teaching HDR students, staff, and scientists to code in R and work reproducibly — including a new 2026 course on AI-assisted coding for the environmental sciences.

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Innovating in the classroom

I redesigned BEES2041 around active, authentic, and inclusive learning. I replaced high-stakes mid-terms with low-stakes weekly tasks that build confidence and cut anxiety; introduced browser-based R (WebR) so students can code with nothing to install; brought machine learning and AI into undergraduate ecology; and led the shift to an in-person, two-part exam — a closed-book concepts section plus an open R-analysis section — that restores valid individual assessment in the age of generative AI, delivered at School scale with no extra resourcing.

Course satisfaction rose from 4.52/6 in 2020 to 95–98% every year from 2022 to 2025, consistently 5–8 points above School, Faculty, and University averages. Students describe going "from fear to confidence".

Educational leadership

Beyond my own classroom, I am the School's Disciplinary Lead for the Quantitative Stream. I authored the Vision for Quantitative Teaching in the New Calendar (2025), adopted in 2026 and being implemented across 2026–2028, which sets quantitative learning outcomes for every BEES specialisation. I also co-developed the School's first teaching workload model (2023–), now used to govern teaching allocation School-wide and presented to the Faculty as an exemplar.

Beyond UNSW

For eight years I have created and led annual two-day courses in R and reproducible analysis (now offered through Stats Central), training more than 150 HDR students, staff, and scientists — including a new 2026 course, "AI-Assisted Coding for Environmental Sciences". I am also taking leadership of Environmental Computing, the School's open teaching resource, which has been used by more than 900,000 people worldwide, adopted at universities including Stanford, and translated into Spanish.

Awards

In 2025 I received the UNSW Students' Choice Teaching Award — one of five recipients from 241 nominations across the University — recognising my redesign of BEES2041. The Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic Quality) has also identified BEES2041 among the University's most-appreciated teaching three years running (2023–2025). Here is what some of my students had to say: