DrGalen Holt

Teaching philosophy
I teach science as a process of inquiry rather than a body of facts. Curiosity, exploration, and questioning help students grasp not only the content but also the nature of scientific knowledge and how science occurs. This approach builds critical thinking that lasts well beyond any one subject. I strive to make quantitative and modelling skills approachable: I introduce theory, statistics, and modelling through the biological questions motivating student interest and tailor lessons and mentorship to students' background. I first developed this approach as a competitive BioME Fellow with the US National Science Foundation and have refined it across a decade of teaching and research supervision.

Areas of expertise

Inquiry-based and active learning; quantitative, statistical, and modelling training for ecologists; and research supervision. To make abstract ideas tangible I build interactive Shiny applications and other hands-on approaches such as pair programming that let students without a strong mathematical background see how models and analyses connect to biological meaning. I ensure students are included in fieldwork, providing the opportunity to gather firsthand experience and move towards independently developing questions and research approaches that are both ecologically important and personally interesting.

Supervision

I supervise Honours, MSc, and PhD students, with a strong completion record and students who have gone on to research careers in universities and government. My students work on aquatic insect ecology, ecological modelling, and ecological responses to water management. Potential projects include the distributions and interactions of aquatic insects, disease ecology, spatio-temporal population modelling and theory, and improved methods for managing aquatic ecosystems.