Carin Wittnich, OERS Lead Veterinarian and Scientist, has received the 2008 Undergraduate Teaching Award from the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Toronto. This award was given to Carin as a professor within the faculty for her work in creating new undergraduate courses at the university thereby exciting expanding the opportunities for undergraduate students to learn new subjects. The award was based on the student evaluations and comments concerning her ability to present the course content in her unique style. When teaching her two most favorite topics-physiology and marine mammals- Carin has a passion and energy which never fails to infect her students and has them wanting to learn more. The award specifically focused on Carin’s development of the first ever Department of Physiology field course in marine mammal physiology and a third year course dealing with the comparative physiology of diving adaptations in marine mammals. She has been teaching a course on the ecology, biology and physiology of marine mammals within another department for 3 years now. However, due to being inundated with requests from science students, she has developed another more intensive course dealing with marine mammal physiology which will be commencing in the winter of 2009. In total Carin has created and runs 4 separate courses dealing with marine mammal physiology or ecology.
OERS has been happy to assist with these efforts by gladly supplying teaching materials and ‘hands-on’ specimens and sharing invited guest lecturers from its own education initiatives. This award is further proof of the professionalism, dedication and expertise that OERS is prepared to share with everyone. OERS is extremely proud of Carin for winning this award and of her ongoing achievements in spreading the interest and knowledge in the little studied field of marine mammals.Lead V