Students consistently report that Heather is a fantastic teacher. Her passion for the environment and quality geographic education drives her to develop fun interactive lessons – something she coins "Bringing Outside in". As one of her students wrote: "I found the use of props, from homemade icebergs to hairdryers very effective, stimulating and notably gave us a very clear indication that Heather was engaged and went a lot of extra miles to engage us. You could really tell she is passionate about geography and it rubs off on you and really pushes you to want to know more about the subject."
Heather strives to connect her students with the natural world, encouraging them to focus on understanding process not memorising facts, while weaving through her courses a range of transferable skills that will assist students beyond their time at university. She regularly attends her first year lab streams as she says "there is no substitute for talking with students face-to-face, answering their questions on a whole range of topics. Students are the mauri or life force of the university."
Her Head of Department says that she is "generous in sharing pedagogical ideas with her colleagues, her teaching is dynamic, reflective and constantly evolves to new practice."
