In Room E-104, Foothill science teacher Wendi Butler is more than happy to give guidance to some AP Biology students, who are frazzled by a recent lab; and are queued up behind Butler’s office chair.
Butler teaches four courses of Honors Physiology, an AP Biology course, and one Medical Technology course this year. Not to mention that Butler is also a singer, a wife, a mother, and a world traveler. Back inside the classroom, Butler is also responsible for the Bioscience Academy, a program for students interested in the health and science fields.
Notorious for being one of Foothill’s most energetic educators, her name may as well be synonymous to Superwoman. But every superhero (or super-heroine) needs their accomplices. Like many other FTHS teachers this year, Butler also changed some of her classes.
But what makes Butler’s story so unique is that for the first time in Bioscience history, a new teacher has taken on the role as the Bioscience Survey educator. Emily Hunt, the chemistry and conceptual physics teacher, has been chosen for this job.
Students enrolled in the Bioscience program take approximately five classes related to the study of science: Bioscience Survey in tenth grade, Honors Physiology and Medical Technology in the eleventh, and Biotechnology and Bioethics in twelfth grade.
Caity Bishop, currently a junior and member of Cohort 6 says of the program, “So far the Bioscience Academy has been a great show of opportunity and knowledge. And I’m really excited for the coming year in Med Tech.”
Because the Survey class is the first class that each cohort in the Bioscience Academy will take, it is crucial that this class really hits it home for students. And because Butler is one of the founders of the academy, handing her elective to a different teacher was a difficult decision.
However, she deemed it necessary to make this decision because of the high amounts of incoming juniors desiring to take Honors Physiology. Taking on four different subjects during the 2009-2010 school year proved challenging for her, and she knew that Emily Hunt had special qualities that would make her a good choice as the Survey teacher.
Butler says that there would not be anything new about the elective, only that there is a new teacher, and “Mrs. Hunt can add her own flavor.”
She has some words of advice for Cohort 7. “Open every door and look down every street,” she begins, “look at all the possibilities, develop relationships, and,” her mouth curls into a smile, “get ready for junior year.”
Upon being asked to teach the Bioscience Survey class for the 2010-2011 school year, Hunt claims to have had very mixed feelings, as it was a new responsibility and something that would take much time out of her. Teaching the Survey class would prevent her from spending more time with her chemistry and physics students, but she knew that stepping in to help Butler was the right thing to do. She is “excited but apprehensive.”
Though Hunt is used to teaching more concrete subjects with “right/wrong answers,” she finds it important as a teacher to stretch herself by also learning how to teach an “exploratory and subjective” course such as Bioscience Survey.
“So far I’ve been enjoying it,” she adds.
Photo: Emily Hunt will be taking over the Bioscience Survey class this year. Photo by Caitlin Trude of The Foothill Dragon Press.
