Edinburgh students reward best teachers

John, Paul, Kirk, Spock and plants: Edinburgh’s most innovative lecturer explains his approach

Students recently complained to a committee of MPs that there was nothing worse than lectures that amounted to “death by PowerPoint”.

But instead of sending students to sleep, the slides Richard Milne uses have helped to inspire them and generate interest in the origins and diversity of life.

“My speciality is PowerPoint presentations,” said Dr Milne, a lecturer in plant science who has just been chosen by students as the University of Edinburgh’s most innovative teacher.

“It is like all these things – if you use it well it is a brilliant tool, if you use it badly it is terrible.”

Lectures that rely on endless slides of written information and bullet points can be “dry as a desert”, he said.

His trick is to use words sparingly and to focus instead on graphics, animations and photographic images.

“Images stay in the mind and can convey ideas very quickly,” he told Times Higher Education.

Dr Milne can get through as many as 120 slides in a 50-minute lecture. One lecture features a sound clip from The Beatles, another a spoof of Star Trek, and a third is based around a murder mystery.
“I try to put it all in the context of an evolutionary story, much the same way as Sir David Attenborough might.

“Say ‘plants’ to most people – especially those straight out of school – and they will stick their tongue out at you and say, ‘Gosh, how boring.’

“But I want to attract students to plant science, to make them think: ‘Actually, there is something interesting about this subject – plants are not just these dull things animals eat.’”

Students, it seems, have been won over. One of those who nominated him said: “He completely turned around my attitude to plant biology: previously I thought it the dullest area of biology, now it is the most interesting to me and I plan to continue its study next year.”
Dr Milne said he “almost jumped up and down with glee” and felt “ecstatic” when he learnt of the accolade while studying plants in China.

“I’ve been trekking across mountains on the back of mules, jumping off and looking at orchids, magnolias and hundreds of other fantastic plants, all to learn a bit more about plant evolution. I have a deep passion for it,” Dr Milne said, whose post is a joint appointment between the Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh and the university.

“Most lecturers have that passion, but I don’t know if they all put it into their teaching. I think students respond to teachers who make an effort, who have energy and who care about them.”