Teaching Spotlight: Dr Rina Wong

The Teaching Spotlight is a regular feature that highlights the outstanding contributions of educators at ECU. Each edition of this series focuses on an individual who exemplifies excellence in teaching—whether through innovative practices, student engagement, curriculum development, or mentorship. By sharing their stories, strategies, and insights, The Teaching Spotlight aims to celebrate teaching excellence, inspire peers, and foster a culture of continuous improvement in learning and teaching across the university.

This edition’s Teaching Spotlight features Dr Rina Wong (Fu), BSc (Hons), PhD, FHEA. She is a medical scientist, author, and artist passionate about making science accessible and engaging through multimodal learning. As a lecturer, laboratory instructor, and unit coordinator in the ECU School of Medical and Health Sciences, she brings creativity into the classroom—using original songs, interactive workshops, animations, videos, and cutting-edge technology to inspire students in Applied Microbiology and Introduction to Haematology.

Curious to hear more about her methods and impact? Let’s hand it over to Rina to tell us more!

Rina, what does learning and teaching mean to you? What role does active learning play in your approach?

To me, learning and teaching is the ‘magic’ that transforms information into knowledge (internalised and applied). Learning and Teaching are synergistic, they edify the learner and the teacher, an opportunity to create greater interest and passion for the subject than either of them doing it alone.

Active learning is my default approach. Active learning has a focus on ‘How’ students learn, in addition to the ‘Content’ they need to learn. Backed by neuroscience research, getting students to engage and ‘interact with the information’ fires up the brain – it switches on multiple neural pathways that further enhances their learning and retention. I use:

• Role-plays (e.g. students choose their microbe’s identity and depending on their unique characteristics like virulence factors, see if they survive in the human host’s immune defense at the end of the lecture)
• Original animations (e.g. MicroToons, national science week project, award winning, beyond the classroom learning)
• Radio shows (stylized lecture and pre-class activities sprinkled with actual radio interviews)
• Original songs (with live performance)
• Analogies (e.g. Chinese fried rice for DNA synthesis).
• Creative research assessment (e.g. students wrote a song about the plague, made edible agar and knitted bacteria!)

How would you describe your teaching practice in three words and why?

Fun, Extends, Infectious

Fun = If something is fun and enjoyable, we become motivated to do it again, and again!

Extends = I teach two content heavy units in medical science, gotta stretch and exercise their brains in creative ways!

Infectious = Literally….. we train students to work professionally with bacteria and blood so they can be competent and work-ready in clinical diagnostic laboratories. Also, (perhaps spoken like a mad scientist) I want to ‘infect’ them with my passion for microbiology and haematology, so they can also enjoy these fascinating topics – forever! Mwhahahaa!

What advice would you give yourself at the start of your teaching journey?

Don’t be afraid to try something different in your teaching approach. Reflect, Refine, Redo!

What is a classroom moment you are most proud of?

When the penny drops. Especially for a struggling student or one with special learning needs. When you witness that ‘lightbulb’ moment after a few (or many) 1:1 explanations, it’s very rewarding!

What’s a piece of meaningful feedback from a student that has stuck with you?

“Her integration of many styles of teaching enhances the ability students to not just learn the content but truly understand it. Rina was able to incorporate visual, auditory tactile, verbal, social methods into her teaching. Her passion and enthusiasm towards the topic of microbiology is infectious!” – UTEI Student Feedback, June 2024

Below is an example of Rina’s classroom, where engagement is high and fun is always on the agenda!

Do you have a go-to active learning activity in your teaching that encourages engagement with students?

Here are some easy-to-do examples that I regularly embed:

• Insert News Articles about our subject matter at hand (Real World Application)
• Other favourites include Pictionary and Kahoot! (Gamification).

Gauging from both spontaneous and formal feedback, students love seeing what they are learning as relevant and useful beyond the classroom (i.e. highlighted in recent news). The interactive short revisions bring fun and enjoyment to the teaching and learning space whilst reinforcing newly acquired knowledge.

About Rina

Dr Rina Wong (Fu), BSc (Hons), PhD, FHEA, is a medical scientist, author, and artist dedicated to creatively sharing science through multimodal engagement. A lecturer, laboratory instructor and unit coordinator at the ECU School of Medical and Health Sciences, she uses original songs, interactive workshops, animations, videos, and innovative technology to inspire students in Applied Microbiology and Introduction to Haematology.

Rina’s doctoral research on malaria drug resistance in Papua New Guinea earned her the prestigious ASP Sprent Medal. After attaining her Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy in 2022, she re-entered research at Curtin Medical Research Institute, exploring topics like malaria, adult stem cells, Australian tea tree, and COVID-19. Currently, she serves as a research fellow and knowledge broker at Curtin Faculty of Health Sciences.

A prolific science communicator, Dr Rina, as she is affectionately known by the broader community, has engaged over 10,000 young people through her debut science picture storybook My Mad Scientist Mummy, public workshops, and school talks. Her project MicroToons-Pimple, co-produced with autistic artists, won 8 international awards and has been screened at over 30 global film festivals. Rina features fortnightly as a guest scientist on ABC Radio Great Southern and 98.5 Sunshine FM.

Peer-recognised for her creative teaching innovations, Rina contributes regularly at T & L forums. In 2025, she was invited as a keynote speaker at various events, including the SAE/ACAP graduation ceremony for professionals from the creative media industry at the Heath Ledger State Theatre. Rina very recently won the Cheryl Power Early Career Microbiology Educator Award from the Australian Society for Microbiology and will be presenting her teaching innovation at their EduCon national conference in Adelaide later this year. Rina seamlessly integrates community engagement, research, and teaching to inspire learning beyond the classroom.

Connect with Rina on LinkedIn.