November 13-17 is American Education Week, highlighting the importance of K-12 education. We asked Biophysical Society Education Committee members to tell us about teachers who made an impact on them.
“In high school there was a fierce science teacher named Mr. Housek. I was unimpressed with the butterflies that my fellow students were collecting in Biology and, against all advice, took his Electronics class instead, where I learned to use a slide rule and to build circuits. Somehow, we got along and his Physics class provoked my curiosity in understanding how things worked. Little did I know how very complicated it was going to be to apply this understanding to biology.”
– David Stokes, New York University
“I had a remarkable science teacher, Mr. Griffith, at Wy’east High School, a small high school 
in rural Oregon – he was known for his pointed and sarcastic remarks, as well as his ability to teach science. He taught me Chemistry, Physics and Semi-Micro Quantitative Analysis, and oversaw my senior research project, which won a semi-finalist place in the Westinghouse Science Talent Search. He also graciously disposed of the batch of chemicals that I once mixed and realized after making it, that it might not be entirely safe. He taught science to many students, including a colleague at UNC Chapel Hill, Richard Cheney, who grew up in a small town up the road from my parents. Sadly, Mr. Griffith is no longer with us.”
– Sharyn Endow, Duke University
“The biggest impact on me was not from any one teacher but from a family of teachers at St. Stephen’s Elementary School in Milwaukee. They watched over me and my brother during difficult times in a turbulent family. My debt to them is immeasurable.”
– Alex Small, Cal Poly Pomona
“I would like to honor Mrs. Mader from Quarton Elementary School in Birmingham, MI. She taught us about self-esteem and confidence. She told me that you could go a long way in life if you believed in yourself, and she was right!”
-Ashley Carter, Amherst College
“I did have a 9th grade math teacher who I have always remembered. He recognized that I had some talent and let me work on my own in the back of the room during class. I was a bit introverted at that time, and working on my own at my own pace really motivated me.”
-Allen Price, Emmanuel College
“Many teachers come to mind when asked about K-12 teachers that made an impact on me. I couldn’t read when I started first grade and my teacher took the time and effort to get me up to speed and performing well by the end of the year. I am confident without her attention to the way I learn and realizing it wasn’t for the lack of ability that I would not be a scientist. Another was my seventh grade science teacher that had very visual exams, which stimulated me. We were learning anatomy and doing dissections so on the day of the exam there were about 25 dissected animals or products from our labs that were tagged with numbers and we had to go around the classroom to identify or answer specific questions about the visual product. This was so aligned with my learning style and curiosity that I loved the exams. My third grade teacher let us self-pace in math if we wanted. So we could just keep going in the math book and several of us chose to do math instead of free time some days. Fourth grade was a shocker when we weren’t allowed to do that anymore. Another was a teacher in high school that I had for two classes, Calculus and Computing. She just got how I learned and most lessons were open ended or if we finished we were asked to help others in the class. Looking back, it seems the teachers that were inclusive of different learning styles and instruction were the ones I remember.”
– Linda Columbus, University of Virginia