Excellent Teaching Assistant Award 2014-15

Mr Sui Wai LAW
School of Biological Sciences
 

Mr Law received his BSc degree in Ecology & Biodiversity at the University of Hong Kong, and further pursued his PhD degree under the supervision of Prof. Yvonne Sadovy de Mitcheson of the School of Biological Sciences on marine fish biology and fisheries.

Mr Law considers his teaching duties in ecology a type of environmental education, and thus it is not only about passing the knowledge, but also changing the attitude of the students towards the environment and nature. In most of the teaching duties as demonstrator, he spent a lot of efforts in familiarizing the students with the teaching materials and raising their interests in the subject. He truly believes “seeing is believing”, and thus, whenever possible, he organized field-based learning such that students can get in touch with real animals and plants, as well as the environment they are living in, such that they can see for themselves the threats that different life forms and the environment are facing.

Mr Law regards teaching as a non-unidirectional process because to teach is to learn twice. During the preparation of the teaching materials, he revised all the textbook knowledge that he had learnt and kept him updated by looking for latest findings. He always welcomed students’ challenging but innovative questions as these could push him to further explore the subject matter, which indeed sometimes gave him new insights in ecology and biodiversity and helped foster interaction with the students.

Mr Law also extended his teaching to outside the University. He and his colleagues organized a programme named “Take Action! Youth Biodiversity Conservation Leadership Training Programme” to secondary school students with the support from the School. The programme aimed to equip secondary school students with ecological knowledge and encourage them to incorporate the knowledge in their everyday life through little changes in lifestyle and actions.