Julie Goll and Sarah Ruffell awarded the 2023 Excellence in Science Teaching Award

Chemistry instructor Julie Goll and Biology lecturer Sarah Ruffell have both been awarded the 2023 Excellence in Science Teaching Award for their excellence in teaching.

The Excellence in Science Teaching Award (ESTA) is awarded annually to a maximum of two instructors who have demonstrated sustained, high quality teaching in their undergraduate or graduate courses.

Julie Goll, Department of Chemistry

Julie Goll has demonstrated sustained exceptionally high-quality teaching over the last 15 years in the Department of Chemistry, both in laboratory courses and high enrollment lecture courses.

Julie is having great success with curriculum development through her innovative approach to “flipping-the-lab”, a pedagogical approach that, to our knowledge, was the first in Canada. Julie also engages in pedagogical research for teaching in the undergraduate laboratory with two recent publications in the Journal of Chemical Education. Beyond the classroom, Julie demonstrates educational leadership. She has held departmental workshops supporting colleagues learning new educational tools and has run Faculty of Science workshops to guide other lab instructors looking to use the “flipped-lab” model for hands-on-learning. Her impact on students at all levels of their academic career from undergraduate students to graduate students is consistently recognized, and Julie will continue to make a positive impact on teaching and learning for many years to come. Julie is a much deserving recipient of this award.

Sarah Ruffell, Department of Biology

Sarah Ruffell is a highly impactful instructor in the Department of Biology. She is recognised for her remarkable efforts to improve the accessibility and equity of her courses for students. This includes initiatives in her courses focused on mentorship (Tea and Talk Sessions), group studying (Study Buddy Room Sessions) and adopting open-source materials in her upper-year courses to ensure all students have access to learning materials. Additionally, a collaboration with the English Language Institute (at Renison University College) created a suite of English language Learning Objectives for Sarah's internationally-taught Biology courses supported by the development of language aids for all lesson content to help her students be more successful learning the challenging language of Biology. Sarah is also highly active in her commitment to the process of improving teaching both at the national and institutional level. This includes publishing and presenting scholarly work in the study of teaching effectiveness and receiving federal grants to continue her research into teaching and learning. To the UW community, Sarah also serves on the Faculty of Science Indigenous Working Group, and Graduate Studies Petitions Committee, among others.