I have been fascinated by biological creatures though, not necessarily in a scientific way. From birth, I loved the sounds of birds, the purr of cats, and even the crickets made by crickets. From tadpoles to frogs, and from caterpillars to the most exotic of butterflies, I love animals and the nature that surrounds me.
Now, I had little interest in science and thought it was useless. But science revolves around everything we take for granted. Here’s some examples--we have technology that does as we command, but where did it come from? Science. We have faucets in our homes that bring us water when we need it, and what cause that to become reality? Science. We have cars that take us places and what caused that? Science.
The things we use everyday come from science. But for years, I didn’t see things that way. I just thought they were there when I needed it and thought nothing more of it, but that viewpoint changed as I entered the classroom of biology taught by my favorite teacher, Mr. Bisbee.
Mr. Bisbee opened my eyes to the complex world around me. He brought more meaning to science and biology. I learned of the intricate and delicate lines that can either break an ecosystem or make one whole. One example deals with a mountain, the rocky mountain I believe, where people go to visit the view. The problem was that at sight of of a wolf, guns would come out and with no hesitation be killed on sight. With in time the wolves had been killed of in the mountains and the predation towards deer stopped. With no predator, the deer population increased exponentially with no stop. Seeing as they are herbivorous creatures they stripped the land of any plant life scarring the land. It was horrible and the horror still shows on the mountain today. (Aldo leopold)
From the first day in his class, I was like any other student. I was there more for the credit than the knowledge. But as days in his class went to weeks -- and then to months -- I grew to love the world we live in. I even began my own studies and researched animals I wanted to see come back to their full potential. I never would have done that before I entered Mr. Bisbee’s class.
He stood in the halls outside his room every day between class periods. His arms crossed, he looked on at the students passing by his room. For those he knew, he would nod and say their names. I always felt appreciated when I passed by and he pronounced my last name in recognition, “Mr. Tarnow.”
I never had to fight to stay conscious in his classroom. His knowledge was always fascinating. Being that I am an auditory learner, I found his class lectures the best. Learning about the complex food webs of an environment or the more simple of organisms -- bacteria -- I always found interest in his teachings.
From time to time, Mr. Bisbee made class more interesting than the day before like the time he taught us how to joggle sock balls, which was a great fun. Even before each new lesson, we would do dialogs with partners explaining what would be next or give insight to what would be new. With the dialogs you were either the character Bing, or Bong. I normally was Bong. One of the dialogs, for example, was about why leaves change colors and fall off the trees before winter came. The reason for the change in color in leaves is that the tree is sucking in all nutrients within the leaves, mainly from the chlorophyll, which is green, leaving the other pigments; red, brown, and yellow.
Mr. Bisbee is like the nucleus of a cell, and in the classroom are his working organs, students. He dishes out information showing his wisdom in all fields of biology. From him, I learned of my passion for science. That is why I’m nominating Mr. Bisbee for educator of the year, thanks Mr. Bisbee.