John Hall

I am a teaching focussed academic, and I specialise in the teaching of ecology. I come to this field from a background in botany and the ecology of animal-plant interactions. Getting students enthused about the "hidden stories" of plants is thus a big part of what I do! In terms of the dynamics of teaching, I am particularly interested in how to maximise the value of field trips in the teaching of ecology; how to best encourage students to develop their skills in literature research and writing; and how to make the traditional lecture format more engaging to students through the striking use of narrative, juxtaposition and imagery. An important component of my work for the school is the development and teaching of international programmes in Australian Terrestrial Ecology, one such example being the course I teach for the University of California.

For my PhD research I studied the ecology of cycads, an ancient group of plants with a fossil record that pre-dates the dinosaurs. I worked on the animal-plant relationships of living cycads, such as their host-specific pollination relationships with certain beetles, their seed dispersal relationships with vertebrate animals and their defences against herbivory. Because of their great antiquity, cycads may provide insights into how animal-plant relationships functioned and evolved before the first appearance of the flowering plants.