Last fall the Ohio Academy of Science honored teachers from six Catholic schools in the Diocese of Toledo for their science programs during the 2006-2007 school year.

Lima St. Charles, Sylvania Franciscan Academy, Toledo Central Catholic High School, Toledo Little Flower, Toledo Our Lady of Perpetual Help and Toledo St. Patrick of Heatherdowns were among 83 schools in the state that received Governor’s Awards for Excellence in Youth Science Opportunities.

Students from Toledo Our Lady of Perpetual Help discuss a project at their science fair. The school was one of six Catholic schools in the Diocese of Toledo to receive the Governor’s Award for Excellence in Youth Science Opportunities. Eleven diocesan school teachers were also honored. (Photo courtesy of Toledo Our Lady of Perpetual Help)

To qualify, each school conducted a local science fair with 20 or more students, sent one or more of these students to one of the Academy’s 16 district science days, and involved students in one or more youth science opportunities beyond the classroom such as State Science Day, visits to museums, mentorship programs and extended field trips.  

“Receiving a Governor’s Award for Excellence sends a clear signal that these schools and teachers value student-originated, inquiry-based science education as outlined in the Ohio Science Education Standards and in the National Science Education Standards,” says Lynn Elfner, the Academy’s CEO. “Whole new worlds of opportunities open up to students when they complete research projects.”

Honored teachers include:

Susan Bastian, for grades five through eight at the Sylvania Franciscan Academy;

Cindy Roller, for grades seven and eight at Toledo Our Lady of Perpetual Help School;

Christina Florence, for freshman and sophomore biology and junior and senior anatomy and physiology at Toledo Central Catholic High School;

Noreen Cromly, for freshman science at Toledo Central Catholic;

Tammy Hinkle, Linda Murphey and Ben Dumas, for grades seven and eight at Toledo Little Flower;

Theresa  Betori, for grades seven and eight at Toledo St. Patrick of Heatherdowns;

Megan Scheid and Chari Cook, for grades seven and eight at Lima St. Charles; and

Bridget Allman, for grade six at Lima St. Charles.

Along with encouraging extracurricular student involvement in science fairs at the local, district and state level, many honorees say they use hands-on activities in class to cultivate an interest in science.

Mrs. Cromly, freshman science teacher at Central Catholic High School, takes an interdisciplinary approach by linking science concepts to other subjects like math and art. Students graph lab results on computers with the help of their math teachers, and the art department helps them create computer graphics of molecules.

“It is very important as an educator that when I present a concept, the students see how important it is to not just learn for the moment, but how that concept ties in with other material and with their everyday lives,” she says.

“Being able to think logically will carry a person further in life than most of the subjects they study,” she adds.

Mrs. Cromly has received the Governor’s Award 16 times while teaching at Central Catholic and previously at Toledo St. Patrick of Heatherdowns, and the high school science department has been honored for 13 consecutive years.

At Our Lady of Perpetual Help School, Mrs. Roller, honored for the past two years, requires her junior high students to teach younger students about concepts such as those they learned from raising butterflies in class. This helps her students better understand the information, she says, and also benefits the younger students.

Mrs. Betori, who has received the award the past 10 years at St. Patrick of Heatherdowns, says she invites outside speakers into her classroom, like high school students from Toledo St. Ursula Academy who visited to talk about wind power.

At Little Flower School, Mrs. Hinkle, an award recipient for the past 10 years, teaches her students to create formal lab reports using the scientific method.

“The high school kids frequently come back and tell me this was a good procedure to know, and that it makes their high school science classes easier,” she adds.