Augsburg College - Augsburg Now

Teachers are often asked to recall past teachers in their lives who made differences along the educational journey. Jon Iverson ’00 and Pete Ockuly ’95 were biology majors at Augsburg. Both now teach science in public schools, and both readily talk about the differences biology professor Dale Pederson ’70, their adviser at Augsburg, made in their vocational decisions.

Iverson teaches seventh- and eighth-grade science at Anderson Open School in Minneapolis, and Ockuly teaches biology at Champlin Park High School. Both believe that Augsburg prepared them well to step into a classroom.

Iverson and Ockuly are graduates of a department that prepares students for varying career paths—graduate or professional studies, secondary education, and industry and research positions. In all cases, it means equipping them with a solid foundation in biology.

Pederson explains how difficult it has become to understand the leading edges of science without such a broad foundation. When he talks to prospective secondary school teachers, he tells them how important it will be for them to "help [their] students develop a useful understanding of the fundamental aspects of biology, e.g. the cellular nature of life, the central dogma of information storage and expression, the correlations between cell divisions and patterns of inheritance, the unity and diversity of life and evolution—above all, evolution. While there are many hot topics in current biology," he says, "most of them cannot be usefully addressed without such foundational knowledge and insight."

In addition to courses in biology, most biology majors also take six semesters of chemistry and physics, and two semesters of mathematics. Iverson says he felt this prepared him for a variety of science activities and teaching—more than many new teachers he knows who concentrated in one major or focused on research.

Ockuly feels his core science background is better than some of his colleagues. His perception is that his college training allowed him to quickly work at a level like that of his colleagues who had more extensive teaching experience.

The Biology Department's rigorous training begins with freshman courses that include research projects through which students learn to understand science as process, how science knowledge is acquired, and the limitations of science—what types of questions it can and cannot ask. For future teachers, Pederson says, this will provide grounding needed for them to help their students, for example, if they become involved in science fair projects. "Teaching science as process is not likely to be effective unless the teacher is experienced in research," he says. "You can't learn how to do science by reading a book. It takes experience and mentoring—a lot of mentoring."

The department also encourages students to develop a sense of lifelong learning. "There is no way that they can learn everything they need to know [at Augsburg], but they'll know how to learn and teach themselves," says Pederson. And, he hopes they take with them an enthusiasm and excitement for science. "You can't work in biology without developing a passion for it and a craving for the insights that continually reveal life to be both more complex and elegant than imagined," he says.

For his future teachers, Pederson says the department also makes specific suggestions for courses to take. If, for instance, the student hasn't had a plant biology course, Pederson recommends one, believing that plant biology should be part of the high school curriculum.

When speaking about their advising experience with Pederson, however, both Iverson and Ockuly speak about it more from an intellectual than scientific perspective. Both recall frequent discussions with Pederson about teaching, education, and educational systems.

Iverson came to college already knowing he wanted to teach. He tells of recently cleaning out old papers and finding a report from second grade in which he listed teaching as his choice for what he wanted to be when he grew up.

He recalls Pederson as a "very, very, very tough teacher." "In my first year I didn't do very well in science," Iverson says, "and I was thinking that I really shouldn't do this. In my second year I had [Pederson], and he pushed me like no other instructor at Augsburg had. I think it was at that time I really started to develop intellectually. You could see it, not only in my grades, but in how much I remembered after courses and in my attitude toward other classes.

"He taught me intellectually the effort it took and the patience it took to do science really well," Iverson says.

Ockuly didn't decide on teaching until late in his sophomore year. He can't pinpoint the actual decision, but can recall listening to teachers and thinking about how he would explain the subject differently, or use different examples. Other factors supported his decision to teach. He enjoyed coaching youth wrestling, and his wife, Kristi Ockuly ’95, was in elementary education.

Ockuly recalls thoughtful, and sometimes provoking, discussions he had with Pederson. "I remember specific conversations about the education system. It interested me to think and talk about it, and perhaps helped push me into education," Ockuly says. "Dale was the first person I ever had deep discussions with; he helped me realize that I wanted to teach."

In educating their own students now, both Iverson and Ockuly want to impress how important science education is for everyone, not just for the students who want to become scientists.

"I believe the goal of science education should be educating [students] enough to be able to vote on important science issues, to be able to deal with household problems that they might have, or problems at their businesses," Iverson says. "If their city decides to build a storm sewer, they should be able to hear arguments on both sides and then decide whether it's a good thing or not."

Ockuly tries to help his students understand the complexity of problems, in addition to the advantages, that result from the explosion of science and technology.

He gives medical care as a prime example. What once were friendly hometown doctors' offices have given way to technically-advanced clinics. He tries to help his students understand how, for example, a small tube for a heart procedure may cost thousands of dollars because of the years or decades of research, design, and trials that made it possible.

Pederson stresses that advisers at Augsburg spend a great deal of time with their students—in lectures, in labs, in one-on-one research, and in advising. Students become comfortable talking with their advisers, making it easier to discuss how to select appropriate courses, experiences, and activities for those students.

For students going into classroom teaching, the department can arrange practical teaching experiences. Iverson worked as a lab assistant, helping teach a biology class for non-majors. "The opportunity to deal with students who really didn't want to be there and didn't have a good grasp on a lot of science" was a lot like the middle school science classroom where he now teaches, he says.

At Augsburg, 10-15 students each year major in biology, chemistry, physics, or math with secondary teaching in mind—areas of current teacher shortages. They have advisers in both their major discipline and in education—something not often the case in teacher training programs.

Advisers from the two departments depend on one another, says Pederson, and collaborate on planning science requirements. "The bottom line," he says, "is that both want the student to succeed."