Tag: High School

HAPS Leadership (#13): Central Regional Director

tplehmanLeave a comment

140115 (1) Murray Jensen“Baltimore…somewhere in the 90s.  That was my first HAPS conference.  Since then, I’ve attended most of the annual conferences, served on a few committees, contributed articles to the HAPS-EDucator, and worked on the effort to archive past issues of the HAPS-ED on the APS Teaching Archive.”

I’m talking with Murray Jensen, Central Regional Director for the Human Anatomy & Physiology Society.  He’s telling me about joining the HAPS Board of Directors.

“With the encouragement of John Waters, I put my name on the ballot for the HAPS Central Regional Director.  It’s been a logical step, as I expand my horizons and learn more about HAPS.  Still, the Talking Head’s lyric – ‘How did I get here?’ – comes to mind.”

140115 (2) Talking HeadsHow did your passion for teaching anatomy and physiology begin?

“I started my professional career as a high school science teacher.  I taught everything from 9th grade special education to anatomy and physiology.  Teaching in the chaos of a high school has put most of my future teaching endeavors into perspective.  Ever try to teach 30 spastic, hyperkinetic, vocal, and emotional 9th graders how to use a volumetric flask on a Friday afternoon during the last period of the day?  You can imagine.

 “I currently teach freshman-level anatomy and physiology at the University of Minnesota, but have kept my contact with high schools through a dual enrollment program at the U.  That has allowed me to keep in touch with high school teachers and educate them about the incredible opportunities through HAPS.”

What sort of opportunities?

“My biggest project for that is a HAPS Central Regional Conference that we’re planning for October, 2014.  We’re looking to have it at a nearby high school (Murray is currently in Minneapolis, Minnesota).  At this conference, I hope to attract both regular HAPS members as well as high school A&P teachers.  We’ll have the usual plenary sessions and workshops, but there will also be ample opportunity for high school and college educators to interact and – as we do so well at all of our conferences – share successes and headaches, brainstorm new ideas, and generally have a good time.  If you know of an educator, high school or college, who might be interested, please send them to the HAPS web page to learn more.” 

http://www1.umn.edu/twincities/index.html

Science Conference Success

erinrusse1 Comment

As expected, the NSTA Conference was delightful! My fellow teachers and I gathered lots of resources, great ideas, and some exciting news! I also had the pleasure of running into a few fellow HAPS members and hopefully helped convince a couple other teachers to join in on all our fun! I love chatting with new people, sharing ideas, and brainstorming together, so I’m thrilled I had the opportunity to make some new connections. 

As for our exciting news… with the new bond that was passed for Houston ISD, there is a rumor we will now have a 1:1 student to computer ratio, with a possibility that my school, Chavez HS, will be one of the pilot schools next year! That being said, I feel the need to prepare myself now for this possibility. It sounds like a great idea on paper, but I question whether I am really ready for the challenge. What experience do you have with student laptops/tablets in the classroom? How do you think they can most effectively be utilized in a high school A&P class?