Teaching

Multiple Teaching Award Winner, Dr Richard Reina:

Teaching undergraduate students is an exciting and fulfilling part of my job. It’s always enjoyable to see the enthusiasm, interest and excitement of students as they learn about the things they are passionate about. I teach undergraduate units in biology, with a major focus on real-world illustrations of biological concepts, using audience interaction and problem solving as much as possible.

I received a Graduate Certificate in Higher Education from Monash University in 2006 and am presently teaching the units below. Much of the practical and research teaching happens on field camps, which are an excellent way of teaching biology in action.

Current Teaching Units Include:

BIO3820 Tropical Terrestrial Biology, a third year unit that I coordinate and teach advanced tropical ecology. I lead a week-long field camp to Malaysian Borneo each year, including time at Mulu World Heritage Area, which is a tropical biodiversity hotspot. We spend a week exploring the ecology of Borneo and students undertake research projects investigating the ecology of native frogs, insects, pitcher plants and dipterocarp forest.

I also supervise honours projects in line with my research interests.

I really enjoy my teaching and have been awarded two Dean’s, two Vice Chancellor’s and two National teaching awards for excellence.

I encourage my PhD students to do some teaching to gain experience, and they are involved in units including BIO2011 Ecology & Biodiversity, BIO2040 Conservation Biology, BIO2231 Animal Diversity, BIO2242 Animal Structure and Function, BIO3011 Research Methods, BIO3021 Marine Biology and BIO3052 Animal Behaviour.