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MacKenzie Carr and Sophie Burrill Awarded 2022-2023 Faculty of Science Excellence in Teaching Awards
A belated congratulations to PhD student MacKenzie Carr and Senior Lecturer Sophie Burrill, who were each awarded a 2022-2023 Faculty of Science Excellence in Teaching Award. These awards recognize their exceptional contributions to the learning experience of students.
MacKenzie Carr – Graduate Student Teaching Award
With a decade of experience as a Calculus Teaching Assistant (TA), MacKenzie served as the inaugural MATH 150 seminar TA leader. She supported student success in the weekly seminars by supervising the Calc Connect Peers and assisting the students in solving calculus problem sets.
MacKenzie’s nominators were impressed by her commitment to piloting and developing this new TA role. She helped to form this role and its relationship with the MATH 150 course instructor and Calc Connect Peers. Nominators also praised MacKenzie’s approachability with students, particularly those who are anxious about mathematics.
"In the seminars, the students often call MacKenzie over for help. Her friendly and non-judgmental demeanour makes even the math-anxious students feel comfortable participating,” says nominator Joanna Niezen. “MacKenzie was also thoughtful about the seminar program outside of the classroom, brainstorming ideas to help engage the students and peer mentors, such as using Discord to encourage the peer mentor team to collaborate on their seminar preparations and selecting ‘MacKenzie's picks’, questions that students were encouraged to work on beyond the questions assigned for submission."
Sophie Burrill – Faculty Teaching Award
Sophie’s dedication to creating accessible and engaging experiences in mathematics education is evident. In her six years as a Teaching Faculty member, she has innovated and developed impactful educational initiatives for the department. Her initiatives include the Calc Connect Peers and the Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Learning Group.
Nominators praise Sophie’s leadership and creativity, empathetic teaching style, and thoroughness in designing courses and programs. They also highlight her classroom initiatives that support students in first-year mathematics courses.
“Given the logistical challenges of large classes (300- 500), disparity of preparation and widespread fear of mathematics, thoughtful, empathetic innovations are required. Sophie Burrill is at the forefront of innovation, and making an enormous difference to future math teachers [and] science students,” says nominator Marni Mishna. "[A]t the same time she works to improve the teaching environment for graduate students and faculty. She is an exceptional colleague, and very worthy of recognition.”