Dr. Heather Proctor Wins First Teaching Matters! Award

From the Students' Union's News:

Professor Proctor Wins SU Teaching Award

January 12, 2009

(Edmonton, AB) — University of Alberta Biological Sciences professor, Dr. Heather Proctor, has been selected to receive the Teaching Matters! Award for Innovation with Academic Materials from the Students’ Union.

The Teaching Matters! Awards were created to recognize and support excellence in teaching at the University and to emphasize the importance of the role of teaching in the undergraduate experience and acknowledge the work instructors do in this area.

Three Teaching Matters! Awards are given each term, and the Award for Innovation with Academic Materials was the first this year. This Award is given to an instructor who demonstrates a genuine concern about the burden that is often placed on students due to the high cost of academic materials. By finding innovative ways to avoid expensive academic materials, this instructor is able to ease the financial burden of their students without compromising the quality of his or her teaching.

Dr. Proctor was nominated for this award by a student in her Zoology 351 class. Dr. Proctor provided hip waders and nets for her students to borrow, affording them the opportunity to venture out into the field and expand on the lessons that they were learning in the classroom. Dr. Proctor went so far as to spend some of her own money to provide materials for students to use in her lab when the lab’s budget was exhausted.

Dr. Proctor clearly demonstrated a genuine concern for her students by ensuring her class was affordable for all her students.