Every September, Professor Judy Brown advises incoming Arts students at the University of British Columbia to “aim to leave as someone different—stronger, more confident, more independent-minded.” She also helps them to fulfill that goal.

Judy fell in love with teaching thirty years ago in graduate school and, despite the “everests of essays” she encounters as a teacher of literature and writing, the work still exhilarates her.

When current and former colleagues describe Judy as “passionate” and “indefatigable,” they recall—among other things—the honours she has already won at UBC, her oversubscribed English Department classes in Canadian and Children’s Literature, her long association with the University Writing Centre and Arts Co-Op education, her workshops on Academic Integrity, her formal and informal mentorship of colleagues and graduate students. Judy has also co-authored writing handbooks used throughout Canada.

Judy’s students recognize the academic rigour of her classes and the passion and compassion of a dedicated teacher: “There is no corner,” says one, “where mediocrity can lurk.” Judy’s respectful and meticulous evaluation of student work involves countless hours of commenting on papers and seminars. Regardless of the mark, “the student will know that I have taken the argument seriously and be encouraged, I hope, to aim higher with each new effort.”

Aiming high herself, Judy demonstrates the “positive restlessness” of a teacher described by one former student (now colleague) as “brimming with insights, gentleness, quiet authority, and passion for excellence.”

“Teach is a wonderful verb,” says Judy, “sharp-sounding and monosyllabic, it has a ring of integrity about it. I teach and proudly so.”

Five former 3M Teaching Fellows nominated Dr. David DiBattista calling him Brock’s teaching and learning champion. A strange word perhaps—champion —yet in a research- and funding-oriented world, David recently made a fundamental and significant shift in his career direction by choosing to dedicate himself to the further development of both his own and the institution’s commitment to the Scholarship of Teaching. David not only embraces the scholarship of teaching and learning, but he also practices it in his teaching, his research, and his daily administrative duties as Associate Dean of Social Sciences.

The buzz words in his nomination are all present and correct: energy; enthusiasm; credibility; creativity; dedication; commitment to teaching excellence; innovative teaching strategies; student-centred learning; and formative feedback. In addition, the educational mission that David has set himself is clear and urgent—to improve the levels of student learning and faculty teaching to the greatest degree possible.

But a 3M Teaching Fellow goes beyond buzz words. Research-intensive universities need the role model presented by David. He demonstrates energy and commitment, makes major sacrifices, and takes an aggressive stance towards teaching. It is the hard choices that define us—putting our creative efforts where our mouths are, accepting every opportunity to assert the absolute necessity of excellence in teaching, and encouraging those around us not just to imitate us, but to follow in our footsteps and to change the world, a step at a time, student by student.

Jon Houseman is known to more than 9 million students who have, over fours years, been taught with 1.5 million downloaded images from the BIODIDAC image bank where his digital photos are available to teachers around the world. This tells only a small part of Jon’s story. Jon teaches descriptive biology and he argues that students have become increasingly isolated from a natural world they may no longer be capable of effectively studying. Jon’s digital teaching materials have given his students the chance to understand the discipline and explore the natural world in the lab or online.

Jon’s Digital Zoology, an online digital atlas and textbook includes specimens similar to those the students dissect in the laboratory allowing for easy comparisons and understanding during the lab. His innovate use of digital cameras allows his students to photograph rather than draw the specimens under the microscope. Not just technology, but cutting-edge technology from a man who is an acknowledged leader, as demonstrated by his previous teaching awards.

Jon’s story continues with the ongoing search, not for perfection, but for the next step in the development of a technology that will enhance the quality of student learning. More, Jon’s life work is dedicated to the continuing inter-dependence of what he calls the triad of teacher, learner, and world observed. He also commits to the development of mutual teamwork, building an education community stretching beyond the limits of one laboratory, one university, one province, one country, to reach out and embrace us all.

Harry’s students remark how he has “made a real difference” in their lives—“an inspirational mentor and educator”—and how Harry has been “patient, positive, approachable and his enthusiasm is contagious.”

Remarkably, Harry is regarded with the same awe and dignity by colleagues within UBC and across institutions in Canada. His inspirational work on the scholarship of curriculum practice and undergraduate program reform has included outcomes-based workshops on educational development, assessment, and curriculum change, creating environments where quality teaching and learning prosper.

It is not surprising, therefore, that Harry pioneered the development, implementation, and dissemination of UBC’s Faculty Certificate Program on Teaching and Learning. Harry led the Scholarship of Teaching Portfolio as a member of STLHE Steering Committee. Those working with Harry are quick to tell others that he has done more than anyone they know to advance teaching scholarship and practice.

At the Teaching and Academic Growth Centre in UBC, where Harry has made numerous contributions, one colleague summarizes: “Harry is an excellent educator. His contributions to teaching and learning at UBC and across the country have been exemplary.” And if that was not enough, Harry has left an indelible impression on children and parents, and Master’s players as the Head Coach and Program Director of the Inter UBC Soccer Academy.

Harry is a reflective practioner-in-action who has had an incredible impact with diverse communities of practice. His leadership and expertise, consultation, and humanity resonate with children and their parents, his students, and with colleagues in various settings.

Dennis Krebs is a not-so-secret (change) agent who has transformed processes hidden deep beneath the complex web of university learning. He has done this directly in collaboration with students and colleagues, and indirectly by chairing committees charged with revitalizing the curriculum. To be effective in changing teaching and learning at all levels, Dennis found that he too needed to change. His colleagues say that he always leads through example.

In his philosophy statement, Dennis confesses that “my first lecture course was an utter failure.” This failure inspired a quest to understand why, which led to changes in the how, which he has attempted to infuse into others with fierce determination. Dennis has strived to champion changes that bring out the best in students in small and large classes, as well as in colleagues from a variety of disciplines. Those affected describe Dennis as “caring,” “nurturing,” “inspiring,” and “moving.”

His ability to guide initiatives that have transformed SFU’s undergraduate curriculum has been pervasive. According to his Provost, “Dennis has made an enduring and critical contribution to SFU—embracing education with a boldness of vision and radical engagement with concrete ideas that enhance student learning.” Colleagues make comments such as, “His many initiatives are not the sort of work for the faint of heart.” Many students attest that Professor Krebs is not only engaging, but also challenging. He perseveres until they take ownership of their learning experiences with confidence and with heart.

“The only appropriate gratitude I can express is in the fact that you have achieved a form of immortality: the knowledge I gained will stay with me and propagate through me for a long time to come” was one student’s comment in Susan McCahan’s thermodynamics course.

In the very first engineering course Susan taught, her global score on student evaluations was the highest in her department, and this was a class of 76 students. Susan has since graduated to classes of 1000, but she still retains admirable evaluations—despite implementing such innovative teaching methods as inquiry-based learning and community based design projects that challenge students to learn in non-traditional ways. “Simply monumental,” is a colleague’s frank description of Susan’s transformative work in the new first-year engineering design and communications course at the University of Toronto.

Whether she is teaching students how to analyze an aircraft engine or how to understand their own learning style, she demonstrates a combination of compassion, practicality and rigour, which actively disproves the clichés of traditionally male-dominated environments at top research institutions, and creates classroom climates welcoming all types of students. Susan has mentored the next generation of graduate students in teaching across the university, many of whom are now professors in Canada and beyond. In addition she is continuing her commitment to improving the learning experience for students through faculty development projects locally and nationally. Susan on-going contributions to student experience and faculty development are exceptional.

The four-seat charter plane lands on a gravel strip in northern Labrador. It’s May or October, and Geoff, along with a senior student, is bringing his passion for science to yet another isolated, sometimes aboriginal, community. With a tireless enthusiasm, Geoff dons his psychedelic lab coat to introduce chemistry to students whose school has limited science offerings, but whose wonder is boundless.

“It is teaching in the service of the larger community,” says Geoff; “teaching that brings the excitement and relevance of chemistry to those who may never otherwise experience it.”

Back in his university classroom, he enthralls with his teaching innovations: uncovering the role of women in science, and encouraging his students to think like a chemist, experiment like a scientist, and write like an author.

Realizing that some students are not “scientist types,” Geoff ensures that everyone leaves class “turned on” to chemistry in some way: “My challenge is to make my classes engaging and relevant to my students’ lives.”

Author of chemistry text books, pioneer in the study of women in science, award-winning teacher, recipient of the Atlantic Provinces Science Communication Award for his enduring and inspirational work, Geoff is an exceptional teacher, who—as one colleague remembers—has so much excitement that he rejoiced when mandatory retirement was eliminated.

A “chemist without borders,” Geoff transforms the face of science and its students: encouraging reluctant learners to become enthusiastic and children in remote communities to seek higher learning.

Had you been one of the 700 people attending the sixth edition of There’s a Heifer in Your Tank at Farmfair International (Canada’s Premier Livestock Showcase) recently, you would have seen Frank Robinson’s students on stage, responding to off-beat and intriguing, but carefully-researched, quiz questions about agriculture: “Will a double-yolked egg hatch twin chicks?” “If your car burned methane, how far could you travel on methane from one cow in one day?”

In class, Frank uses students’ innate curiosity about animals to “sneak up and educate them when they least expect it.” Out of class, he uses the same principle to advocate for agriculture in Alberta and beyond. Frank’s citation into the Alberta Agriculture Hall of Fame—he’s the youngest inductee in 55 years—states, “Like the Pied Piper, Frank has led scores of people, from students to seniors, to a greater appreciation of the impact agriculture has on everyday lives.”

“If you eat food or wear clothes,” says Frank, “you are involved in agriculture.” Whether designing syllabi his colleagues describe as “instructional master-pieces,” teaching students in the field—“learning with dirty feet,” running his now infamous “There’s a Heifer in Your Tank” competitions for Alumni of his class, or bending the ear of the Ministry of Agriculture, Frank Robinson raises awareness of agricultural issues for everyone, and in particular he is making it cool for his students to study chickens (his specialty) in cow country. When it comes to instruction, Frank echoes Sister Mary: “It’s a brand new day.”

We begin with Ivan Steiner’s voice. His words have affected every one of his supporters. Ivan teaches Emergency Medicine, and trainees must pass his litmus test: “Would I allow you to look after my family members, or me?” These physicians will have reached this important plateau of learning, internalizing his “three stop signs, four questions, and seven points” tool, all of which challenge physicians: “You don’t listen enough.” As a teacher, he talks, but mainly listens, a key to his teaching strategy. He fades into the back-ground, allowing the increasingly confident trainees to work with a minimum of interference. “The MD degree is merely a comma, not a period.” Ivan stresses the social and humane implications of his discipline.

“Teaching is a privilege, not a right!” he insists. Ivan leads and actively enhances medical pedagogy at University of Alberta’s Faculty of Medicine in Edmonton, and his profound teaching influence reaches across Canada, and beyond, to Luxembourg, Israel and other countries. Scores of presentations, papers, and publications arise from his research and experience, making his work accessible and applicable for the world.

Ivan’s teaching has earned him sixteen major teaching awards, and on Faculty of Medicine student small group evaluations, he has not scored lower than 4.8 (on a 5-point scale). A former student recalls, “Many of ‘the pearls’ of Emergency Medicine I have learned and now teach have come to me, huddled next to critically ill patients, listening to the quiet, steady voice of Dr. Steiner.”

In June of 2001, “Ernie”- “Miko Peyasew” (Red Thunderbird), bows to receive the ceremonial feather headdress of an Honorary Chief bestowed by spiritual elders and band chiefs.

For some 20 years, Ernie Walker had reached out, above and beyond his University of Saskatchewan faculty position in the Department of Archaeology, to his larger community, “changing the institutional and cultural relationship and mutual response among Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal persons” to the point of having leaders declaring that “his leadership” had been “crucial for the future of Saskatchewan and Aboriginal people.”

But for Ernie Walker, the dedication to reach out across cultural boundaries can be argued to be simply the consistent expression of his wider dedication to transcend all knowledge boundaries whether they be academic, social, research related or learning and teaching related. “Human history and Natural History are the opposite sides of the same coin… In many ways Archaeology is the ultimate science,” he proudly proclaims. Flying this revolutionary banner from class, to lab, to field, and back again, our “bone-man” sparks enthusiasm, growth, and gratefulness, sketching himself, so to speak, the “backbone” of a powerful reformulation of academia, and obtaining on the way all Teaching Awards available at the University of Saskatchewan, as well as that offered by the British Columbia Institute of Technology. A student comments, “He teaches everywhere he goes, in whatever he does . . . he teaches all the time.” As he teaches, he creates community, and today we welcome him into his new community—the 3M Teaching Fellowship.