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Awards and recognition
Connecting theory to practice through technical innovation and field-based learning: 51社区黑料Geography lecturer receives 2025 Excellence in Teaching Award
When it comes to bridging the gap between classroom lectures and real-world applications, there is no better opportunity than on-the-ground learning.
That鈥檚 what field-based geomorphologist and geography lecturer Andrew Perkins believes.
鈥淕etting students out in the field鈥攖here's really no substitute for that in terms of them being able to make conceptual connections in their mind and start to think critically about how to use the theory they've learned in their classes,鈥� he says.
This spring, Perkins has been named a recipient of one of SFU鈥檚 2025 Excellence in Teaching Awards for Experiential Education.
From outdoor labs on Burnaby Mountain and local field trips to field schools throughout the province, he runs field-based experiences in all his courses at every level, giving students opportunities to engage directly with the science they are learning about.
In a popular third-year field course, integrated with foundational skill-building for Professional Geoscientist accreditation, the class spends 12 days in the Okanagan, where they design and run their own experiments.
Whether it is their first field experience or the latest of many, students come equipped with a diverse range of prior knowledge and field experience, giving many the opportunity to work on their leadership skills and teach others in an environment that fosters peer-to-peer learning.
鈥淸Students] get experience from the perspective of someone who's close to being an expert, having gone through all the training, and someone who's just at the modest level. It really pulls the team together,鈥� Perkins says.
To support students in their field work, Perkins is currently working on an app that will allow them to track their progress with GPS and access pre-readings about site locations.
The app will also include content produced by local Indigenous knowledge keepers about the land students are visiting.
鈥淪tudents can engage with [the app] while they're in the vehicle between transfer sites,鈥� Perkins explains.
When getting students in the field isn鈥檛 feasible, Perkins finds other technological ways to make learning engaging and accessible.
For a number of his courses, he developed just-in-time online resources鈥攆ive-minute-long snippets students can engage with before they come to class to prepare them to tackle the day鈥檚 main lecture topic.
These resources came in handy when classes made an emergency shift to online in 2020 through 2021, and over time have also replaced the need for heavy鈥攁nd often costly鈥攖extbooks.
With the help of SFU鈥檚 Centre for Educational Excellence, a 300-level online class Perkins teaches about natural hazards now includes virtual field experiences, filmed professionally while he is on site at specific locations in the province鈥攊ncluding volcano sites, landslide sites and flood sites.
Perkins says these videos help illustrate how close to home these sites are. 鈥淎nd also, that we live in this beautiful, vibrant, dynamic landscape,鈥� he says. 鈥淚've had a huge amount of good feedback that students really enjoy seeing those landscapes in the virtual environment.鈥�
Perkins says that he would like to continue to work on integrating virtual field experiences and on-the-ground experiences.
He is currently exploring a new project that would make it more accessible for students to engage with field sites remotely, at reduced cost and risk.
鈥淥ne of the projects that's sort of on the horizon is seeing how we can use internet-based technology in the field, where we could do live streams from specific field sites to really engage students,鈥� he shares.
鈥淲here there are opportunities to meaningfully engage students in virtual field experiences, I think that can be really valuable.鈥�