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Chantale Bégin receives a 2015 Outstanding Undergraduate Teacher Award at USF
[11.20.2015]

Tampa, Fla. -- On Nov.19, 2015, USF Instructor, Chantale Bégin, who graduated from Simon Frasier University with her Ph.D. in biology in 2012, was awarded the 2015 Outstanding Undergraduate Teaching Award from the University of South Florida.

The candidates for the award were evaluated on whether or not there was evidence of effective teaching, proven by results of students and exemplary commitment toward students and the student success initiative; a learning-focused approach to the primary roles of teaching, which include presenting content, opportunities for student practice and effective assessment of student performance; and demonstrated commitment to continuous improvement. Bégin exemplifies this through her hands-on teaching approach and getting students in the field to experience the organisms and ecosystems that they learn about firsthand.

"I find teaching very rewarding for the positive impact I can make for my students, whether it be to get one student to understand a concept that he/she has been struggling with for a long time, or really getting somebody excited about something they never really thought much about in the past,” Bégin said. As a winner, Bégin will serve a two-year term in the Provost's Academy for Teaching and Learning Excellence on matters related to teaching and learning.

Bégin, whose research focuses on marine ecology and conservation, from coral reefs to polar waters, is an integrative biology instructor in the College of Arts and Sciences. Her interest in marine biology started in an unusual way. At the age of 15, she was asked to join an oceanographic expedition that was doing some research in the St. Lawrence estuary in Quebec, which is where she grew up. While on board this research vessel, she was able to do a dive on a research submersible called Clelia, down to a depth 300m. According to Bégin, that dive was all it took to convince her that she wanted to study marine biology.

Filed under:Arts and Sciences Integrative Biology    
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