Larkins, Jo-ann

Biography

Seeking to make maths and stats less intimidating.

Jo-ann is a lecturer at the Gippsland Campus. She teaches mathematics, statistics and core science skills such as scientific literacy and communication, ethics and research techniques.

Jo-ann's primary professional focus is on achieving quality teaching and learning outcomes for and with a variety of tertiary students. She specialises in engaging and mentoring first year students in a range of faculties with their initial studies of statistics and basic mathematics, seeking to make it interesting, useful and less intimidating as a subject area. She also has a passion for helping students become fluent in the language they need to effectively communicate their science. Jo-ann seeks to make necessary core subjects accessible to students, relevant to their chosen degree and ultimately develop marketable generic job skills within my students. She utilises the best of current technological resources in my teaching with an aim of optimising student engagement and ensuring equity and quality for isolated and distance students.

Jo-ann enjoys engaging with others in research, mainly in mentoring others in statistical analysis of larger multivariate data sets. This work occurs at all levels, with fellow academics, students at honours, masters and doctorate level and with administrative staff.

Jo-ann's research interests lie in the area of mathematics education, particularly in the impact of the level of preparedness of students undertaking tertiary mathematics and statistics courses. She engages in collaborative approaches to designing targeted mathematics courses to develop the optimal set of mathematical skills required to succeed in a particular degree with an emphasis on thinking mathematically and writing effectively about mathematical concepts.   She also has an interest in adequately preparing HDR students from a range of backgrounds and disciplines to undertake independent quantitative research. Jo-ann is a problem solver; helping to analyse and solve the wide variety of fascinating scenarios brought for assistance in analysis by colleagues.

Qualifications

Graduate Diploma of Education (Secondary) - Monash University

Bachelor of Science  - Monash University

Publications

Book chapters

Howgrave-Graham, A., Kirstine, W., Larkins, J-A., 2009, 'Benefits of the scientific method to business and how business and science can learn from each other', in Small Business: Innovation, problems and strategy, Nova Publishers, pp. 117-133, ISBN 978-6092-113-5.

Conference proceedings

Larkins, JM., Mosse, JA., Chapman, B., Is the evolution of biochemistry texts decreasing fitness? A case study of pedagogical error in bioenergetics, Proceedings of Australian Conference on Science and Mathematics Education 2011 (17^th Annual UniServe Conference) Teaching for Diversity – Challenges and Strategies, 28 September 2011 to 30 September 2011, UniServe Science, Sydney NSW Australia, pp. 187-192. View Publication

Chapman, B., Mosse, JA., Larkins, JM., The probability isotherm: an intuitive non-equilibrium thermodynamic framework for biochemical kinetics, Proceedings of Australian Conference on Science and Mathematics Education 2011 (17^th Annual UniServe Conference) Teaching for Diversity – Challenges and Strategies, 28 September 2011 to 30 September 2011, UniServe Science, Sydney NSW Australia, pp. 169-174. View Publication

Panther, BC., Larkins, JM., 2009, A Study of Indoor and Outdoor Nitrogen Dioxide Concentrations at Student Residence, The Proceeding of the 19^th International Clean air and Environment Conference, 6 September 2009 to 9September 2009, The Clean Air Society of Australia and New Zealand, Perth WA Australia, pp. 1-4.

Teaching

SCI2010 / SCIGC2010 Scientific Practice and Communication

SCI1020 / SCIGC1020 Introduction to Statistical Reasoning

MTHGC1010 Essential Maths

ETG1102 / ETGGC1102 Business Statistics

BEG4010 / BEGGC4010 Research Methods 1