My Most Interesting Science Teachers

I remember all of my science teachers from middle school to high school. I remember none of my college science teachers. I don’t know why, I guess it’s because I made personal connections with my teachers in grades 7 to 12 and no personal connections with my college professors.

In middle school, I had the same science teacher for both 7th and 8th grade - Mrs. Ferrence (Don't tell anyone, but I had a huge crush on Mrs. Ferrence). We did labs involving hydrochloric acid, used liquid mercury (This is VERY dangerous and I have no idea why we had access to mercury) and used the bunsen burners along with asbestos hot plates. The burners hooked up the gas spigots like we have in the science lab (The gas spigots in our science lab are turned off) and after we heated a flask or beaker, we could rest it on the asbestos hot plates. Asbestos is a carcinogen and is VERY dangerous. The affects of asbestos were not well understood at that time and now it’s considered a hazardous material. God knows how we all survived middle school science with all this dangerous stuff around!

In high school, I had Mr. Moreau for 9th grade biology. He is the one who forever locked the phrase “the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell” into my brain. 

I had Mrs. Olsen for physiology in 10th grade. The highlight of the year was dissecting a fetal pig. It went on for weeks and those pigs were getting a little ripe by the time we were done. 

My lab partner, Tom Murphy, played on the football team. He was a senior and had zero interest in science. He was required to take and pass the class to graduate. Every Friday we took the quiz at the end of each chapter called “Test Your Knowledge.” Tom would copy off me like crazy and as a homage to me, changed the “Your” in the title to “Mark.” I don’t know who got that text book the following year, but each and every quiz was called “Test Mark’s Knowledge.”

The following year, for physics, I had Mr. Olsen - yes, they were married and their classrooms were directly across from each other. I never really thought about it at the time, but that’s pretty unique. I can only image their dinner table conversation.

Mr. Olsen (Left) and Mrs. Olsen (right)

My last science teacher in high school was Miss Archambault. She was very tall - nearly 6 feet and had long, long blond hair. She was an earth science and biology teacher and the advisor to the Astronomy Club (which I had helped start). She was forced to teach chemistry and did not want to do it. She was not comfortable with the subject, and did a poor job teaching it. 

When the final exam rolled around - a massive test where your understanding of the entire year’s worth of chemistry was assessed - we were panicked. We basically had to pass the final to pass for the year. 

Someone had gotten hold of a copy of the test and almost every senior had the answers. The funny thing is, when the teachers corrected the tests, the kids who hadn’t known a bit of chemistry all year were getting 90’s and 100’s. This made the teachers just a wee bit suspicious. The administration launched a full-scale investigation - kids were getting called down to the office over the loud speaker, parents were called in, teachers were in meetings - it was electrifying! 

In the end, they figured out who stole the test answers, who had the answers and who used the answers to cheat. The administration threw out all the chemistry final test scores except for Miss Archambault’s class.  As a group, we had done so poorly, the administrators concluded we could not have been part of the cheating scandal. 

They were wrong of course. I knew kids who had the answers. I saw them sneak a look at them during the test. I also had the answers in my pocket, but never looked at them - I swear. I scored a 77 on the final.