Elizabeth Burmester of the John Finnerty lab was awarded Outstanding Teaching Fellow of the Year for the BU Marine Program, academic year 2014/2015. Burmester’s teaching experience was part of the rigorous BU Marine Program semester or “BUMP semester”. Her performance in both “Coral Reef Dynamics” and “Tropical Marine Invertebrates” was exemplary. Both of the Marine Semester courses that Liz taught featured a 12 day excursion to Calabash Caye Field Station (CCFS), which is located on a mangrove island, 33 miles off the Belizean coast. This is a well equipped marine field station, but its remote location puts a premium on logistical planning and safety.With respect to logistics, Liz played a substantially large role.
As she has for four consecutive years, Liz served as the de facto logistical coordinator for the BU Marine Program’s Belizean course offerings. She oversaw the planning for student research projects, packing scientific and safety gear, and she took the lead in obtaining relevant collecting permits from the Belizean government.
Liz’s dedication to student learning and safety was reflected in extremely high scores in the student evaluations. Liz’s average score for “Overall Instructor Rating” on the course evaluation forms were 4.83 in BI539, Coral Reef Dynamics and 4.88 in BI569, Tropical Marine Invertebrates, a perfect score being 5.0. The sentiments expressed in the comments section were effusively complimentary of her as a person, as a scientist, and as an instructor. As one student put it, Liz exhibited the “perfect balance of professionalism and friendliness towards students.” An another student stated, “Liz was exquisite[emphasis theirs] in her contributions to the class and her input was always positively constructive. She was always there to help explain concepts, statistics and field experiences. Her knowledge of not just corals, but the entire realm of biology was very evident and was exceptionally beneficial to the entire class. She was fantastic to have as a TF: there could be no better person for the job!”