Current OBTA Awardee

2017: Benton Shriver, Putnam City High School

Benton has been teaching at Putnam City High School since 2011, where he began as a general biology teacher and currently teaches anatomy and physiology.

Before he was hired as a teacher at PCHS, Benton served as a substitute teacher in the school and when his assignments landed him in the science building, he saw opportunity. After becoming a full time biology instructor, he implemented a long-term, collaborative learning plant project. In this student-led project, students care for plants in the atrium of the building, fostering a sense of stewardship and pride in their school. Students become experts on the plants and use the plants to develop and test research questions over the course of several months.

Benton also developed a program for his students that utilizes a pond in a park near his school. In this project, students perform a mark and recapture study on freshwater turtles in the pond. Students trap freshwater turtles using baited hoop nets and collect water quality data when setting and collecting traps. The turtles are taken to the school lab where their species and sex are identified, morphological measurements are taken, and the turtles are permanently marked. The turtles are then released back into the pond. Students perform these activities for one week in the fall semester and one week in the spring semester. In the interim, students compile, graph, and analyze preliminary data, ask questions, and conduct research based on the data and questions. This study is continued annually with a new group of students each year.

Like the plant project, this turtle project exemplifies "real science." His students gather data over the years that could eventually lead to published papers describing the turtle community of the pond, growth rates of the turtles, migration patterns, etc. Benton's students have already established that there is a population of a particular species of turtle, Sternotherus oderatus, which, according to current range maps, does not live in our area. This is an opportunity for students to write a range extension paper for publication in a local herpetological journal. This project develops an interest in nature and wildlife. Many of Benton's students express to him that they have not been outside in weeks, except to walk to the car or back into a building. Most have never handled a turtle, let alone a wild one.

Benton has since moved from general biology to anatomy and physiology. As an A&P teacher he encourages students to study the human body with an ever present resource; themselves and each other. As they study the different body systems he uses a combination of brief lab activities, reading assignments from current research, some lecture, project-based learning, and dissections. He says, "I try to use A&P as a vehicle to get students to study scientific practices. I feel that in the 21st century the development of skills is much more important than simple memorization." An interesting project he uses during the digestive system is called “Junkyard Digestion”. During this project, students write a proposal to plan out a working model of the digestive system that they will build from common household items. This project requires students to work on their problem-solving skills and introduces them to scientific proposal writing while they are learning the anatomy and physiology of the digestive system.