27.06.2006
Dr Hal Sosabowski, a Principal Lecturer in Chemistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences at the university has won a prestigious national teaching prize in recognition of his outstanding contribution to learning and teaching.
Dr Sosabowski is one of 50 lecturers and learning support staff in England and Northern Ireland to be selected by the Higher Education Academy to be one of its National Teaching Fellows for 2006. Each new Fellow has been awarded £10,000, to be used to support further learning and teaching.
Hal is well-known for his charismatic teaching style. A regular on children's television programmes such as ITV1's Ministry of Mayhem, on which he has performed experiments using an exploding ostrich egg, hydrogen balloons and a screaming jelly baby, he states that his aim as a teacher is to "seek innovative and effective ways to capture learners' attention". From touring schools with his Chemistry Magic Show to using his background as a police constable to lecture Sussex Police on drug and alcohol abuse, Hal enthuses students of all ages and backgrounds. He is particularly interested in teaching Chemistry to Level One non-chemist students who may think that it is irrelevant and dull. "My mission," he says, "is to change all that."
Hal has been a key member of the Royal Society of Chemistry Downland Section Trust through which he has exerted a considerable influence on how Chemistry can be taught and marketed. Further examples of his innovation include the design and implementation of a Business Studies module for fourth-year pharmacists which has been incorporated into the Masters in Pharmacy degree accredited by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain, and his creation and construction of the card game Chemistry Trumps, for which he received the University of Brighton Innovation Award 2003.
Over the past ten years, Hal has been instrumental in driving forward Brighton's Managed Learning Environment (MLE) and has been described as a university intranet pioneer, co-creating the Pharmacy Intranet; which at the time was a highly original resource. He has completed an MBA and an MA in Marketing, which, he says, have served as a constant reminder of what it’s like to be on the 'other' side of the teacher-learner relationship.
"Much has been reported recently of the decline in numbers entering Chemistry at university," he comments. "My goal is to reverse this trend by both influencing and educating young learners at the start of their lifelong learning career and influencing and enabling chemistry teachers."
Contact: Marketing and Communications, University of Brighton, 01273 643022
