PONTIAC — Pontiac Township High School science teacher Paul Ritter has earned top teaching honors from the National Science Teachers Association.
He was one of more than 100 teachers in kindergarten through 12th grade from across the nation nominated for the Sea World/Busch Gardens Outstanding Environmental Educator of the Year Award, which was presented to him last month at a conference in San Francisco.
Ritter has received national attention for the Prescription Pill and Drug Disposal Program that he and his students started in 2007. Also called P2D2, it has expanded into 16 states.
In his 13 years at Pontiac, Ritter has a long history of getting students involved in community projects in order to teach scientific principles.
“I truly believe excitement in the classroom is imperative. These kids want immediate feedback and instant reward. It’s the Nintendo and Facebook society, so we try to get them excited and out into the world quickly,” said Ritter.
PTHS Principal Jon Kilgore said Ritter will do just about anything to get students involved in the classroom, including picking up a guitar to lead classroom sing-alongs.
“The students are truly engaged in enjoyable learning activities such as changing the lyrics of songs to include science content,” said Kilgore. “He is constantly looking for creative means to teach environmentalism with the science curriculum.”
Several people were involved in getting Ritter nominated, but it wasn’t even one of his students who got the ball rolling on the effort. Jordyn Schara, a sophomore attending a high school in Wisconsin, contacted him two years ago about P2D2 and helped expand it into Wisconsin.
Spokesman Kate Falk of the National Science Teachers Association said nominees were scored on nine criteria, including project goals and accomplishments, positive impact on schools and their community, originality and creativity and the level of student participation. Finalists also were required to fill out a questionnaire.
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