WINNER PROFILES DAN WOOD
7th grade science Cincinnati Country Day School In Dan Wood’s classroom one will come across turtles, a snake, a tarantula and lots of plants. “I love having life in a class,” says Woods, a 13-year science teacher at Cincinnati Country Day. “Kids connect with living things, especially 12-year-olds. They are still curious and haven’t reached the point that they think they know everything. They are still able to be filled with that child-like sense of wonder.” His students may unknowingly benefit from Wood’s own life experiences as well. A Milford native, Wood calls himself a Cincinnati prodigal son, who “wandered” for ten years before coming home to teach. With a master’s in zoology, he worked at the Center for Sea Turtle Research in South Florida. He also worked with reptiles at a national park in South
STEVE REINKE
General education teacher Symmes Elementary (Sycamore)
There is a small deciduous forest behind Symmes Elementary, complete with a stream, trees and critters such as deer, possums, raccoons, chipmunks, a red-tail hawk, rat snakes, turtles and salamanders. Thanks to Steve Reinke the eight acres is on its way to becoming a hidden gem, a life science lab he hopes will spur great things in his elementary students and older ones in the Sycamore Community district. “Anytime you give children an opportunity to explore rather than walking in a straight line on a trail, but actually dig in the dirt, look under a log or in the water, that is what they like to do,” Reinke says. Owned by the school system, the property has never been developed as part of a life science curriculum since the school was built on the property in 1990. It has been Reinke’s labor of love to turn 22
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Africa, before getting involved with underwater data collection as a scuba diver at marine research centers in Honduras and the Bahamas. Wood, also the varsity wrestling coach, takes a group of students each summer to dives in Honduras after helping them get certified in scuba diving. Back in the classroom, Wood’s seventh-grade science curriculum is an amazing crash course in life sciences that involves the study of cell theory, chromosomes, evolution and anatomy. He has partnered with the Heimlich Institute to train seventh graders in the lifesaving technique and had the students do a presentation to younger grades. Wood’s class also wrote letters of encouragement to a patient who came
to visit after receiving an artificial heart. Wood remains committed to the freedom and creativity afforded by an independent school. His message to his seventh-graders: “Kids can learn they can influence the world now. They don’t have to wait for some unspecified adult time. They are citizens of the world now and can affect change.” ■ — R.B.
the area into a true educational nature center for the past five years. He has overseen cleanup of the property with a core of teacher and parent volunteers. Eagle scouts also have earned merit badges working on the infrastructure, building trails and other improvements. The Nature Trail at Symmes School now features two outdoor classrooms, a bird watching station, a native tree farm and a complete half-mile trail loop. Now that the property is becoming a usable nature center, teachers have begun incorporating it into their classroom curriculum. “Junior high students have studied the water quality in the stream,” Reinke says. “Some teachers do a scavenger hunt. Some look for fossils. Some have held creative writing classes.” The ultimate goal is for this working life science research lab to produce more environmental scientists from Sycamore schools in the years to come,” he says. “If
you can teach children the wonders of nature and observation, they can become better students and solve the complex problems going on in the environment.” ■ — R.B.