Andrea McAdam

Andrea is a medical scientist with a passion for microscopes, blood cells, parasites, and encouraging students to find their own 'favourite cell or organism'.

Teaching in the vocational sector means working with people on a pathway from high school or Cert III or overseas qualifications & experience. Andrea derives great pleasure in helping them gain skills and confidence to move into the professional laboratory environment she has loved working in.

The scope of courses Andrea teaches covers introductory biology, basic microscopy and bacteriology techniques, clinical diagnostic haematology, blood film analysis, academic exploration of current research in the immunology field, blood grouping, and how not to kill patients with incompatible transfusions.

Classes with Andrea are rarely dull - she takes the course material seriously but has a range of strategies to make the learning fun, relevant and involving.

She thinks that a bored teacher is a boring teacher, and hopes to retire before she stops enjoying 'finding out things'. However, she also strongly believes that to learn, students have to DO something, and preferably not find the activity boring either.

Having taught English to speakers of other languages for many years as a volunteer, Andrea has always tried to use clear, plain English in writing and speaking as a teacher. Doing the Cambridge English Language Teaching to Adults certificate in 2011 gave her many useful transferable techniques for the VE context.

Her current focus is on updating all her teaching resources to conform with best practice accessibility guidelines in their content and format.

Andrea began working in laboratories soon after completing her first degree - a Bachelor of Science from University of Sydney, majoring in Histology - and moving to Melbourne.

She spent several years as a technician at CSL in the immunology diagnostic research division that was developing enzyme immunoassay tests for HIV, livestock infections, and the 'new' 'non-A non-B hepatitis virus (now called Hep C) before working in neurochemistry-related platelet research in Parkville.

After completing a Graduate Diploma in Medical Laboratory Science at RMIT (the equivalent of the current Laboratory Medicine degree) she worked in pathology laboratory at Royal Melbourne Hospital for 15 years in diagnostic haematology and transfusion.

During this time, she taught Immunology part time at RMIT and studied for a Master in Public Health and Tropical Medicine through James Cook University, Townsville.

As an adjunct senior lecturer at JCU, she taught postgraduate Infectious Diseases by distance education.

From 2009, Andrea lived in Central Australia, working at Alice Springs Hospital as Senior Scientist in charge of Haematology and Transfusion for three years.

Back in Melbourne, she returned to teaching at RMIT. In 2017, she completed a Graduate Diploma in Adult and Vocational Education. She currently teaches fulltime in the VE sector.