Why We Teach!

Abstract

> Teachers affect eternity; no one can tell where their influence stops. > > Henry Brooks Adams Teaching has been one of the most important and honored professions since the beginning of history. Through observation, trial and error, and experimentation, teachers—including elders and others—have passed down vital information from generation to generation. This is still true today and this month, August 2015, marks the beginning of another school year here in the US where over 250,000 science teachers (approximately 78,000* of these being high school life science and biology teachers) will enter their classrooms. Why do we teach? We do it for the same reasons that so many generations have done before us—to pass on crucial information we have gathered in our lifetime. We want to share knowledge about life, living organisms and their interconnections. We want our students to understand why it's so important to take care of our environment. This was such an important topic that we asked the NABT Board of Directors to share their thoughts on why they teach. Their responses are found below. > ### President-Elect Bob Melton > > The beginning of a new school year has always been an exciting time for me. It is always full of hope, promise, and the allure of the challenge ahead. The real challenge is that of reaching out to a diverse set of individuals and discerning the ways to engage each one of them in the practices of science and immerse them in the thinking and discourse that is modern science. How can I develop independent thinkers, creative problems solvers, and functional collaborators in a group of individuals who are connected only by time, place and the common requirement for a credit in Biology I? This is the excitement that wakes me up in the middle of each night for two weeks prior to the start of school and …