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Michael Edgar, Science Department
By Bonnie Emmons P ’03
Michael Edgar, in his third year at Milton Academy, is head
of the science department and is a class dean for Class III.
I met with him recently in the lab outside the science faculty
office, where the walls are lined with student posters discussing
a marvelous variety of topics, from red tide to various kinds
of algae to SPF labels on sunscreen. We were briefly accompanied
by a student carefully investigating –dissecting might
be the right word here – a flower. In this space the
strength of Milton’s science curriculum seemed exceptionally
tangible; the room was alive with experiments and projects,
including several fish swirling around in a few little bowls
and a large beaker of flowers next to various containers for
gathering pollen. It was the ideal setting for a brief chat
with Michael, who marveled at the “serendipitous”
(his word) path that brought him to Milton.
Michael spent his college years as a biology
major at Bates, where he had focused on becoming a vet. A
fateful year after graduation spent teaching – and loving
it – persuaded him to eventually say “No thanks”
to Penn’s School of Veterinary Medicine, thus officially
launching his career in education. He taught for ten years
in Washington, DC at Georgetown Day School, his alma mater,
and then decided to take a leave to get his Masters in Education
at Harvard. He spoke with fond memories about this year; he
relished the luxury of investigating full-time not only how
people learn but also various ways to teach to those learning
styles. After a final year at Georgetown, he headed north
to Boston and a job here at Milton. He was recently married,
and he and his wife, who is a social worker, now live on campus.
This year, Michael is teaching a Methods in Research course
as well as a Marine Biology course. Methods is a lab intensive
course that most ninth graders at Milton complete; it is designed
to give students the “how to do science” tools
they need. It is lab intensive, and focuses on ecology as
well as environmental science. Michael described with great
satisfaction one of his favorite projects in this course,
which involves field work at “Lake O’Hare,”
the wetland on campus behind the facilities building. Apparently
this particular project, scheduled in the early spring, will
this year require a serious respect for mud – and perhaps
hip waders – as the class investigates the skunk cabbage!
Biology continues to be Michael’s first love in science,
and he has spent his summers over the past few years focusing
on various projects related to biology around the world. He
has worked for the Smithsonian Institute on several of its
summer trips, and has been to Ecuador and the Galapagos, which
he adored. He describes the opportunity to learn over the
summer as a “total luxury,” and he has taken marine
biology courses as well a field ecology course in Maine. We
both agreed that right now America is a “place to be”
for scientists; much is being accomplished in this country,
including some ground breaking discoveries in biology.
Michael described his feelings about being a teacher at Milton
very succinctly; as he put it, “there’s not a
day that I don’t come in to work and love being here.”
A self-described“people person,” he clearly loves
the interactions with other teachers and with students that
shape the day of every teacher here at Milton. It is this
love, as well as his allergies to pets, that have made his
choice to forgo a career as a vet particularly fortunate for
us all.
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