I distinctly remember Mr. Knapp having us sit in circle around a cloaked box he had just retrieved from his car. He finally cured our anticipation as he unveiled the cloth, exposing the four painted turtles that were housed inside. “There are hundreds in our pond and I thought I’d bring in some for today’s class,” he said nonchalantly. Although it appeared to be a trivial gesture to him, I was amazed. Not only was I intrigued by the painted pond-dwellers, but I thought it was so cool that he was able to bring in turtles just because it corresponded with our lesson.

This is the first memory I trace back to when I get the ever so common question, “Wow, Marine Science… how’d you get into that?” But I see this CVMS memory as something more than a spark for my interest to work with animals; I view it as the origin for my fascination with unconventional classroom teaching. What I mean by this is many modern classrooms are becoming dull and do not utilize their full potential.

Last summer, I lead a STEM program at a YMCA summer camp where campers explored science outside of the traditional classroom environment. Whether we were shooting off Alka-Seltzer rockets; creating ice cream from scratch; or blasting potatoes out of a cannon; everyone, including myself, had a blast! It is this type of education, the type where a teacher can surpass the classroom norm, that helped me become successful after leaving CVMS.