Figure 1. Analytical chemistry laboratory. © PMRS, photo used with permission

Teaching has always been in my blood. I grew up in a household of teachers; my father was a history teacher for 40 years, and my two older sisters were English and elementary teachers. However, after graduating high school, I sought an occupation far from the area of teaching, because I desired to blaze a path that was different than my family members.

I had always been interested in the sciences, and chemistry caught my eye early on in life. Therefore, I attended and graduated from Grove City College in Grove City, Pennsylvania with a bachelor’s degree in chemistry, with the added experience of several laboratory internships.

After graduating from college, I was hired at a small yet lucrative private pharmaceutical company, Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Research Services, Inc. (PMRS), which offers world-class quality analytical services to the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies. I was an analytical chemist, performing method development and validation as well as release testing of medications that were manufactured in the facility.

In two years, I advanced quickly, and became one of the youngest pharmaceutical laboratory managers in the country. I was given the responsibility to build out a 10,000-square-foot laboratory, while acting as the primary liaison between PMRS management and Merck Pharmaceutical advisors, whose stability operations PMRS was supporting. I hired, managed, and worked alongside a team of chemists who performed Phase III stability testing of Merck’s pharmaceutical drugs.

Over the course of my leadership in the laboratory, I supervised the successful approval of four new drug applications with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Working for almost eight years as an analytical chemist, I oversaw and coordinated the management and development of analytical chemists. I was also the point person for undertaking investigations and corrective action procedures to comply with FDA and Drug Enforcement Agency regulations. Looking back on my experience, I was incredibly proud to be a significant member of the team that helped secure approval of pharmaceutical drugs that would later save people’s lives.

From the lab to the classroom

Throughout my years at PMRS, my accomplishments as a pharmaceutical chemist allowed me to achieve my desire and forge my own path. But at the same time, I could feel an aspiration for teaching deep inside my heart. I eventually decided that I had a passion for teaching and needed to embrace my family’s heritage in the field. Even though I was testing medications that someday might improve people’s lives, I yearned for a chance to help people one-on-one, in real-time — through teaching.

After much reflection and prayer, I left the job in the laboratory that I had loved, and moved a thousand miles away to begin teaching in a small classroom in Dunnellon, Florida. Unlike my home state of Pennsylvania, Florida had a Professional Certificate program that allowed a professional to transition seamlessly from industry into education, so I leapt at the opportunity to enter teaching. I realized that beginning a new phase of my career as a teacher in a public school in Florida would result in a cut to my salary and life on a stricter budget, not to mention enduring the heat and humidity of Florida. But as I mentioned, education was in my blood, and I dove into teaching with passion.

Over two decades of observation, I’ve learned that many first-year teachers have difficulties entering the classroom. Studies have shown that even when they have been taught the fundamental tools, strategies, and philosophies of education, they often still struggle with the transition from the theoretical to practical.¹ Fortunately, I did not have such growing pains in my own metamorphosis into teaching. This was partly because I was simply trying to impart the excitement I’d felt about practical chemistry and physics to my students. In addition, I was no longer managing professional analytical chemists, but rather, molding and developing younger chemists.

One approach I utilized from my experience as an analytical chemist was to assign targeted, hands-on laboratories. I found that many labs detailed in textbooks and guides were simply “cookie-cutter” labs that followed specific procedural laboratory experiments. My experience in the pharmaceutical industry highlighted the need for chemists to develop and cultivate skills in analysis, data interpretation, and problem-solving. For this reason, the labs that my students conduct in class focus on those skills, as well as testing through inquiry, presenting findings to peers, and identifying sources of error and their possible effects. Students are not simply following a procedure, but actually developing their scientific understanding.

Another point of emphasis I brought into my classroom from my pharmaceutical experience was a love of learning. At PMRS, we did not necessarily hire chemists from prestigious universities or ones with the highest grades. Instead, we sought employees who loved to learn. We knew these types of individuals would continue to grow, excel, and pursue excellence inside and outside of the laboratory.

When I began teaching, I strove to make my classroom a space for learning and growth, in which my students had the freedom to be wrong. My classroom is an active place for learning, where questions and problems become the priority over the simple imparting of knowledge. I do not “lecture at” passive students to simply relay information, but instead actively question them to facilitate their understanding. My lesson planning is focused on developing the optimum questions, problems, and inquiry-based activities so that every student is challenged to participate and learn through both correct and incorrect answers.

Teaching allows me to take my gifts of scientific and mathematical understanding and combine them with a passion for the betterment of every student who walks through my classroom doors. Honestly, the most difficult part of my transition from industry to education was seeing my students leave for the summer. Ultimately, I understand that my mission is to teach — and this high calling demands my excellence each day.

Beyond the classroom

Figure 2.The author was the 2022 recipient of the ACS Division of Chemical Education   Southeastern Region Award for Excellence in High School Teaching

Dunnellon High School was an amazing place to start my teaching career, as I was able to build my school district’s strongest AP Chemistry and AP Physics program over the course of nine years. At our Title I school, I had over 15% of the school population taking Advanced Placement science courses, with our students consistently passing AP exams at a rate that exceeded the state average.

I left Dunnellon in 2013 to build the science program of a brand-new liberal arts high school, Redeemer Christian School, in Ocala, Florida. Fast-forward to today, and I am in my 20^th year of teaching Advanced Placement Chemistry, Physics C: Mechanics, and Calculus AB, along with courses such as Pre-AP Chemistry and Experimental Science.

In the past decade, I have helped to grow our school into one of the top chemistry, physics, and calculus programs in the state. Over 80% of my students have consistently passed the AP Chemistry, AP Calculus AB, and AP Physics C: Mechanics exams. This performance is a direct result of the streamlined science program I developed.

As both a scientist and a teacher, I have been disheartened to watch as Florida’s student enrollment in courses such as chemistry and physics continues to fall.² Therefore, at Redeemer we require every student to take at least four years of science education, beginning with an algebra-based physics course, followed by college preparatory courses in chemistry and biology. As a result of these initiatives and achievement, Redeemer Christian School received the highest honors of Platinum AP Honor Roll, along with the AP Access Award, which acknowledges that our school provides equitable access to advanced coursework.

One of the greatest influences throughout my teaching career has been my active participation in the American Association of Chemistry Teachers (AACT). This amazing organization’s focus is to support and equip chemistry teachers to be their best and transform their classrooms into true learning environments. The professional development webinars have helped me build a support system of chemistry colleagues, and also provided me with numerous labs, activities, and articles my students can use to increase their understanding. Through my membership, I have provided multiple classroom resources to actively engage students that were recognized on the AACT site as Resource of the Month. I also served for two years on the Nominating and Awards Committee, which evaluates potential candidates for elected positions on the AACT Governing Board and selects the recipients of AACT teaching awards.

AACT has inspired me to extend the reach of my chemistry teaching beyond my classroom walls. I have grown a ChemClub program that has created ChemBowl, a county-wide chemistry quiz competition for both public and private schools. In turn, my ChemClub students received an ACS Community Activities Grant, which helped them create the Little Lions Chemistry Program, an annual initiative that allows them to teach chemical concepts to elementary school students. The opportunities for professional growth I have received from AACT have contributed to my receipt of awards such as Marion County Rookie Teacher of the Year, Marion County Golden Apple Teacher of the Year, ACS Florida Chemistry Teacher of the Year, Florida High School Science Teacher of the Year, and the ACS Division of Chemical Education Southeastern Region Award for Excellence in High School Teaching.

The awards and accolades I have received have been fulfilling, but what I’ve valued most have been the opportunities to build deep relationships with each and every student who enters my classroom, and to see them grow into young men and women of character. Teaching has truly been the place that has allowed me to take my gifts and passions and use for the benefit of others. My greatest priority in the classroom is to impart to my students a lifelong joy of learning, recognition of the beauty found within the sciences, and the satisfaction of knowing they are striving toward excellence.

My heart is continually delighted whenever a former student contacts me to tell me how their time in my classroom is still affecting their lives positively. While my goal of “saving people’s lives” has been the same both as a chemist and teacher, changing my career has allowed my ambition to spread beyond my own world.

References

¹ Al-Amin, M.; Chowdhury, A.; Munira, S.; Jahan, I.; and Islam, U. (2021). Discrepancies between Theoretical Knowledge and Implementation: Practice Teachers’ Views. IOSR Journal of Research & Method in Education. 2021, 11, 27-34.

² Cottle, P. Physics in Florida’s public high schools: What keeps students (and their parents) away from physics courses? May 23, 2023 blog post on Bridge to Tomorrow website. Available at https://bridgetotomorrow.wordpress.com/2023/05/23/physics-in-floridas-public-high-schools-what-keeps-students-and-their-parents-away-from-physics-courses/ (accessed Aug 14, 2024).