School of the Environment

Associate Professor Louise Kuchel

Deputy Associate Dean Academic (Students)
Associate Professor
School of the Environment
+61 7 336 51034
+61 7 344 32650
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Researcher biography

My current research is all about finding ways to improve teaching and student learning, with a focus on biology and other sciences. This is a new and exciting direction for me to which I and my group are now dedicated. Of particular interest to me is finding ways to improve communication abilities of science students through the design, testing and implementation of effective curricula, class activities and assessment methods. Naturally, no learning occurs in isolation, so my current research also looks at learning scientific reasoning, information literacy, and how to improve the relevance and authenticity of practical/lab classes and assessment tasks.

Previously my research focussed on using physiological approaches and techniques to address questions in ecology, conservation and aquaculture, especially in vertebrates living in extreme environments (see references for examples). I continue to be involved in biological research through teaching, co-supervision and examination of postgraduate students.

My current projects aim to find effective ways to...

  • Improve abilities of first year biology students to work effectively in groups.
  • Improve science students' communication abilities through the development and implementation of a new 3rd year course titled Communicating in Science.
  • Improve scientific reasoning and writing in first year biology students.
  • Improve tutor support and consequently student learning through implementation of a program of tailored tutor professional development.
  • Improve information literacy in first year biology students.
  • Motivate students to improve their biological knowledge and use of modern communication technologies by implementing authentic assignments throughout the curriculum e.g., websites, video, blogs.
  • Improve the ability of students to articulate the skills and knowledge they develop in undergraduate ecology research through the use of a skills portfolio.
  • Improve student practice and confidence in avoiding plagiarism and adhering to academic integrity.

Publications

Book Chapters (6)
Journal Articles (21)
Conference Papers (7)
Generic Document (1)
Newspaper Article (1)
Thesis (1)

Book Chapters

Kuchel, Louise and Rowland, Susan (2023). Rhetoric, influence and persuasion. Teaching science students to communicate: a practical guide. (pp. 11-19) edited by Susan Rowland and Louise Kuchel. Cham, Switzerland: Springer-Nature. doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-91628-2_2
Kuchel, Louise (2023). Learning to write from the way you read. Teaching science students to communicate: a practical guide. (pp. 153-157) edited by Susan Rowland and Louise Kuchel. Cham, Switzerland: Springer-Nature. doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-91628-2
Rasmussen, Amanda and Kuchel, Louise (2023). How to be a functional team member. Teaching science students to communicate: a practical guide. (pp. 513-519) edited by Susan Rowland and Louise Kuchel. Cham, Switzerland: Springer-Nature. doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-91628-2
O'Brien, Katherine, Kuchel, Louise and Rowland, Susan (2023). Getting students to express an opinion. Teaching science students to communicate: a practical guide. (pp. 118-128) edited by Susan Rowland and Louise Kuchel. Cham, Switzerland: Springer. doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-91628-2_13
Kuchel, Louise and Rowland, Susan (2023). An introduction to science students and communication in the workplace. Teaching science students to communicate: a practical guide. (pp. 1-7) edited by Susan Rowland and Louise Kuchel. Cham, Switzerland: Springer. doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-91628-2
Kuchel, Louise (2020). Insights for designing science communication training from formal science education: apply the mantra and be explicit. Theory and best practices in science communication training. (pp. 104-121) edited by Todd P. Newman. Abingdon, Oxon, United Kingdom: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9781351069366-8

Journal Articles

Stevens, Sarah, Mills, Rebecca and Kuchel, Louise (2019). Teaching communication in general science degrees: highly valued but missing the mark. Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education, 44 (8), 1-14. doi: 10.1080/02602938.2019.1578861
Rowland, Susan, Hardy, James, Colthorpe, Kay, Pedwell, Rhianna and Kuchel, Louise (2018). CLIPS (Communication Learning in Practice for Scientists): a new online resource leverages assessment to help students and academics improve science communication. Journal of Microbiology and Biology Education, 19 (1) 1466. doi: 10.1128/jmbe.v19i1.1466
Bennet, Dawn, Knight, Elizabeth, Divan, Aysha, Kuchel, Louise, Horn, Jody, van Reyk, David and Burke da Silva, Karen (2017). How do research-intensive research universities portray employability strategies? A review of their websites. Australian Journal of Career Development, 26 (2), 52-61. doi: 10.1177/1038416217714475
Kuchel, Louise, Hergt, Janet and Beames, Stephanie (2016). Welcome to volume 24 number 3. International Journal of Innovation in Science and Mathematics Education, 24 (3), i-iii.
Mercer-Mapstone, Lucy D. and Kuchel, Louise J. (2016). Integrating communication skills into undergraduate science degrees: A practical and evidence-based approach. Teaching and Learning Inquiry, 4 (2), 1-14. doi: 10.20343/teachlearninqu.4.2.11
Mercer-Mapstone, Lucy and Kuchel, Louise (2015). Core skills for effective science communication: a teaching resource for undergraduate science education. International Journal of Science Education, Part B: Communication and Public Engagement, 7 (2), 181-201. doi: 10.1080/21548455.2015.1113573
Djerf-Pierre, Monika, Cokley, John and Kuchel, Louise J. (2015). Framing renewable energy: a comparative study of newspapers in Australia and Sweden. Environmental Communication, 10 (5), 634-655. doi: 10.1080/17524032.2015.1056542
Mercer-Mapstone, Lucy and Kuchel, Louise (2015). Teaching scientists to communicate: evidence-based assessment for undergraduate science education. International Journal of Science Education, 37 (10), 1613-1638. doi: 10.1080/09500693.2015.1045959
Kuchel, Louise, Wilson, Robbie S. and Ellis, William H. (2015). Cameras, competition and creativity: assessing 1st year ecology in the field. International Journal of Innovation in Science and Mathematics Education, 23 (2), 34-45.
Kuchel, Louise J., Stevens, Sarah K., Wilson, Robbie and Cokley, John (2014). A Documentary video assignment to enhance learning in large first-year science classes. International Journal of Innovation in Science and Mathematics Education, 22 (4), 48-64.
Groom, Derrick J. E., Kuchel, Louise and Richards, Jeffrey G. (2013). Metabolic responses of the South American ornate horned frog (Ceratophrys ornata) to estivation. Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology B-Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, 164 (1), 2-9. doi: 10.1016/j.cbpb.2012.08.001
Regan, Matthew D., Kuchel, Louise J., Huang, Susie S.Y., Higgs, David A., Wang, Joyce, Schulte, Patricia M. and Brauner, Colin J. (2010). The effect of dietary fish oil and poultry fat replacement with canola oil on swimming performance and metabolic response to hypoxia in stream type spring Chinook salmon parr. Aquaculture, 308 (3-4), 183-189. doi: 10.1016/j.aquaculture.2010.08.014
Sheriff, Michael, J., Speakman, J.R., Kuchel, L., Boutin, S. and Humphries, M.M. (2009). The cold shoulder: free-ranging snowshoe hares maintain a low cost of living in cold climates. Canadian Journal of Zoology, 87 (10), 956-964. doi: 10.1139/Z09-087
Sheriff, Michael, J., Kuchel, Louise, Boutin, Stan and Humphries, Murray M. (2009). Seasonal metabolic acclimatization in a northern population of free-ranging snowshoe hares, Lepus americanus. Journal of Mammalogy, 90 (3), 761-767. doi: 10.1644/08-MAMM-A-247R.1
Hanson, Linda, M., Baker, Daniel, W., Kuchel, Louise, Farerell, Anthony P., Val, Adalberto L. and Brauner, Colin J. (2009). Intrinsic mechanical properties of the perfused armoured catfish heart with special reference to the effects of hypercapnic acidosis on maximum cardiac performance. Journal of Experimental Biology, 212 (9), 1270-1276. doi: 10.1242/jeb.022764
Wagner, G. N., Kuchel, L. J., Lotto, A., Patterson, D. A., Shrimpton, J. M., Hinch, S. G. and Farrell, A. P. (2006). Routine and Active Metabolic Rates of Migrating Adult Wild Sockeye Salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka Walbaum) in Seawater and Freshwater. Physiological and Biochemical Zoology, 79 (1), 100-108. doi: 10.1086/498186
Wagner, G. N., Hinch, S. G., Kuchel, L. J., Lotto, A., Jones, S. R. M., Patterson, D. A., Macdonald, J. S., Van der Kraak, G., Shrimpton, M., English, K. K., Larsson, S., Cooke, S. J., Healy, M. C. and Farrell, A. P. (2005). Metabolic rates and swimming performance of adult Fraser River sockeye salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka) after a controlled infection with Parvicapsula minibicornis. Canadian Journal of Fisheries And Aquatic Sciences, 62 (9), 2124-2133. doi: 10.1139/F05-126
Cooke, S. J., Hinch, S. G., Wikelski, M., Andrews, R. D., Kuchel, L. J., Wolcott, T. G. and Butler, P. J. (2004). Biotelemetry: a mechanistic approach to ecology. Trends In Ecology & Evolution, 19 (6), 334-343. doi: 10.1016/j.tree.2004.04.003
Wilson, R. S., Kuchel, L. J., Franklin, C. E. and Davison, W. (2002). Turning up the heat on subzero fish: thermal dependence of sustained swimming in an Antarctic notothenioid. Journal of Thermal Biology, 27 (5), 381-386. doi: 10.1016/S0306-4565(02)00006-2
Kuchel, L. J. and Franklin, C. E. (2000). Morphology of the cloaca in the estuarine crocodile, Crocodylus porosus, and its plastic response to salinity. Journal of Morphology, 245 (2), 168-176. doi: 10.1002/1097-4687(200008)245:2<168::AID-JMOR7>3.0.CO;2-1
Kuchel, LJ and Franklin, CE (1998). Kidney and cloaca function in the estuarine crocodile (Crocodylus porosus) at different salinities: Evidence for solute-linked water uptake. Comparative Biochemistry And Physiology A-molecular And Integrative Physiology, 119 (3), 825-831. doi: 10.1016/S1095-6433(98)01022-8

Conference Papers

Kuchel, Louise (2023). HDR workshop: tips and hacks for making your writing sing. Australian and New Zealand Society for Comparative Physiology and Biochemistry, Gatton, QLD, Australia, 9-10 December 2023.
Kuchel, Louise and Rowland, Susan (2023). Chatting about the curriculum: teaching students to communicate - a practical guide. Biosciences Education Australia Network, Melbourne, VIC, Australia, 14-15 December 2023.
Clarke, Aimee, Kuchel, Louise and Rowland, Susan (2023). Assessing effectiveness and continuously improving student leadership programs. Student Transition and Retention Success (STARS), Brisbane, QLD, Australia, 3-5 July 2023.
Rasmussen, Amanda, Rossini, Renee and Kuchel, Louise (2011). Is it worth taking time out of first year science courses to explicitly teach team skills?. 34th HERDSA Annual International Conference, Gold Coast, QLD Australia, 4-7 July 2011. Milperra, NSW Australia: Higher Education Research and Development Society of Australasia.
Brauner, C. J., Baker, D., Hanson, L., Kuchel, L., Jackson, D., Farrell, A. P. and Val, V. L. (2007). Acid–base regulation during hypercapnia, exercise and anoxia in the armoured catfish, Liposarcus pardalis. Seventh International Congress of Comparative Physiology and Biochemistry, Salvador, Bahia, Brazil, August 12–16, 2007. New York: Elsevier. doi: 10.1016/j.cbpa.2007.06.102
Regan, M., Kuchel, L., Rummer, J., Machala, A., Grant, A., Schulte, P., Brauner, C., Balfry, S., Higgs, D. and Devlin, R. H. (2006). Effects of dietary lipid substitution on swimming performance during the early developmental stages of Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha). Annual Main Meeting of the Society for Experimental Biology, University of Kent at Canterbury, UK, 2-7 April, 2006. New York: Elsevier. doi: 10.1016/j.cbpa.2006.01.039
Kuchel, L. and Franklin, C. E. (2001). Osmoregulatory plasticity in a crocodile: The physiological and morphological responses of the estuarine crocodile, Crocodylus porosus, acclimated to fresh and salt water. Crocodilian Biology and Evolution, The University of Queensland, 8-10 July, 1998. Chipping North, NSW Australia: Surrey Beatty and Sons.

Generic Document

Mercer-Mapstone, Lucy and Kuchel, Louise (2015). Teaching science students to communicate - a teaching resource.

Newspaper Article

Cokley, John D. and Kuchel, Louise (2009, 09 16). In Australia, green wine is good Global Post

Thesis

Kuchel, Louise J. (2003). The energetics and patterns of torpor in free ranging Tachygiossus aculeatus from a warm-temperate climate. PhD Thesis, School of Biological Sciences, The University of Queensland. doi: 10.14264/106239

Areas of research

Biodiversity and conservation science
Ecology, genetics and evolution