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Preuss Teacher and Students Experiment
Their Way to Two National Science Awards

Ioana Patringenaru | May 10, 2010

preuss teacher
Anne Artz, who teaches science at The Preuss School at UC San Diego, recently received two natiowide awards.

Students at The Preuss School sometimes think biology teacher Anne Artz is really their age—never mind that she became a grandmother a few months ago. They sometimes think she missed out on a career as a stand-up comedian, because of the humor she injects in her classes. But they say they always marvel at her ability to make biology interesting and relevant.

Artz’s teaching talent was recently recognized with two major awards. She received $10,000 from biotech company Amgen. She also was one of 10 teachers nationwide to receive a grant from the Society for Science & the Public that will bring in $35,000 to Preuss over the next four years. Most of the funds will go to teacher training and equipment for Preuss’ new Advanced Placement environmental science class, which Artz started teaching last year.

Colleagues said they’re not surprised Artz is getting recognized. For years, they’ve watched her spend her Saturdays going to conferences to get resources for the school; take her students on nature walks on the weekends; and chaperone school dances at night.  “She’s just so dedicated,” said Season Mussey, who also teaches biology at Preuss and works closely with Artz.

“Mrs. Artz has a deep passion for the mission and guides students toward the goal of college,” said Preuss Principal Scott Barton. “She truly believes that given the right environment, all students can and will be successful.”

Artz said she’s just trying to make sure her students learn something and enjoy their classes every day. When she took her first teaching job 21 years ago, her principal told her to ask herself if she would like to be a student in her class. She’s kept that advice in mind ever since. “I try, every day,” she said.

Her biggest challenge, she added, is to make her subject matter important enough that her students want to remember it or apply it. “I can teach them about cells, but it has no meaning if they can’t apply it,” she said.

preuss teacher
Artz talks with two her students during a biology class for juniors.

Indira Esperza, a junior at Preuss, is one example of Artz’s ability to reach her students. She wants to become a judge and had little interest in studying cells. During one of her classes, Artz talked about a family that sued after a company used a family member’s cancer cells after she died. That caught Indira’s attention. She went on to read a book about the case.  The 17-year-old also said that Artz is an engaging teacher, who always has a positive attitude and makes her students laugh. She also praised the teacher’s hands-on approach.

“She understands we don’t learn from the textbook,” Indira said. “We learn by looking at the world.”

Artz cares about her students’ needs, said Alex Tesfamichael, also a Preuss junior. She doesn’t switch topics in class until she makes sure everyone understood what she just covered, he said. Granted, the 16-year-old already is an expert of sorts. He works for Jose Milan, a principal investigator at the Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute. A project he developed in Milan’s lab looked at the relationship between a specific gene and bone density in mice.

Alex is a long way from his roots in the African nation of Eritrea. He was the first in his family to be born in the United States. His mother, father and two older siblings fled Eritrea during the country’s war of independence from Ethiopia. His mother walked for a month with his older brother on her back and his older sister by her side to join his father, a soldier who had found his way to Sudan. The family finally came to the United States.

Working at Preuss is wonderful, because teachers get to provide for students like Alex an education on par with what private schools offer on the East Coast, Artz said. The Preuss School serves low-income students in sixth- through 12th-grade who will be the first in their family to go to college. The school offers a rigorous college-prep curriculum for all students. The goal is to get all of them admitted to four-year campuses. Every year, graduates go on to prestigious universities, including many University of California campuses, Harvard, Stanford and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

preuss teacher
Artz's students say they like that she uses humor during her lectures.

The Preuss School serves low-income students in sixth- through 12th-grade who will be the first in their family to go to college. The school offers a rigorous college-prep curriculum for all students. The goal is to get all of them admitted to four-year campuses. Every year, graduates go on to prestigious universities, including many University of California campuses, Harvard, Stanford and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

On a recent Wednesday afternoon, the teacher got juniors settled for a biology class. During an hour-long lecture about birds, fish and amphibians, she explained why birds don’t make good fossils; discussed the merits of a state law banning lead buckshot, which have been found to poison condors; and asked her students to define the word “osmosis”—among other things. She also cracked quite a few jokes. She explained that freshwater fish urinate much more often than their saltwater cousins. “You’ll never want to swim in Lake Tahoe again,” she told her students.

The juniors seemed engaged. They shouted out answers. When Artz explained that scientists use condor-shaped puppets to feed the species’ baby birds, one girl exclaimed “Oh my God!” When the teacher explained that salmon sacrifice themselves after reproducing and become food for their hatchlings, one boy said: “That’s hard core.”

preuss teacher
Students in Artz's 11th-grade biology class look at feathers through a microscope.

Artz said she’s always loved science. She planned to become a doctor, but one year as a pre-med student at the University of California at Riverside was enough to convince her that medical school was not for her. Instead, she fell in love with research and microbiology. She went on to work at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston and later at a biotech company in San Diego.

Then, she had children and decided she needed to work in a more family-friendly environment. That’s when she became a teacher. That was 21 years ago. She taught middle school and high school. She also worked as an assistant principal, but found she didn’t like being away from the classroom.

She came to Preuss five years ago. “I’m really fortunate because I don’t know of a time when I didn’t want to come to work,” she said. Artz’s enthusiasm for her subject is obvious, colleagues said. She comes back from weekend conferences energized and full of ideas, said Mussey.

“She’s like a little kid,” Mussey said. “Her eyes are shining.”

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