Education Extra: She makes biology come alive

By Judy Tachibana
Bee Staff Writer
(Published Nov. 25, 1997)

Walk into Heidi Haugen's classroom at Florin High School and your senses are bombarded -- posters of dinosaurs, snakes and endangered species cover walls and cabinets. Mobiles of planets hang from the high ceiling. Madagascar hissing cockroaches, hairless rats (one a new mother), crayfish, spiders, millipedes and newts make their homes in glass aquariums lining lab counters.

Enter the major source of all this stimulation: Heidi Haugen, a fireball of energy.

In her English as a second language biology class, where students speak seven other languages, Haugen begins with a session of "brain ball." She tosses an orange foam brain to students who then answer -- in English -- questions about microscopes. They throw the "brain" back to Haugen, and for correct answers receive "brain bucks" to exchange for prizes.

Haugen is one of 12 state finalists for the 1998 Presidential Awards for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching, a joint program of the White House and the National Science Foundation.

She is among 613 of the nation's best math and science teachers. Four teachers from each state will receive a presidential citation, along with a $7,500 grant to their school from the National Science Foundation, at an awards ceremony in June.

Haugen, 33, has received so many awards this year that she can hardly keep track of them all. She was named 1997-98 teacher of the year for the Elk Grove Unified School District. In September, she was named one of two Sacramento County teachers of the year.

Haugen also received the National Association of Biology Teachers' Outstanding Biology Teacher Award for California for 1997.

Haugen, a graduate of the University of California, Davis, has worked for the Elk Grove district since 1988 and has taught at Florin High since 1989.

All of her recognition is well deserved, according to her supervisors and her students. She "radiates excitement about learning and cares about her students. She displays enthusiasm for teaching and is very creative," according to Odie Douglas, former principal of Florin High and now an assistant superintendent.

"Her devotion to science teaching and her students is unparalleled," according to W. Terry Chapman, the current Florin High principal. He says Haugen is the first person to arrive on campus, at 6:30 each morning, and the last to leave.

John Gotishan, a senior who came from Turkey three years ago, said Haugen has made science interesting for him. Kim Chi Nguyen, who emigrated from Vietnam, agreed. "She gives us a lot of ideas to work it out and explains how to do it," Nguyen said.

In the classroom, a television screen is hooked up to the Internet and Haugen pulls up examples of specimens seen through different types of microscopes. Students are encouraged to do outside research and to use modern technology.

"I don't just give kids information; they have to discover it," Haugen said.

That discovery takes place through projects such as the "cockroach crawl" where students build a track and race the bugs. They collect salmon eggs from the American River fish hatchery, raising the fish and then releasing them into the river. They learn genetics by breeding hairless with half hairless rats.

In "Suckers for Science," students investigate why people don't feel leech bites and why bites bleed even after the leech has been removed -- an experiment that emerged from the life experiences of some of Haugen's immigrant students. The students then send E-mail messages to scientists to see whether it is known if leeches can spread the HIV virus.

Harpreet Dhillon, who immigrated from India a year ago, sought help from Haugen for an hour every single day after school during her first months in the United States.

"Miss Haugen helps you anytime you want -- lunchtime, before school, after school," said Dhillon, who hopes to become a doctor. "She's a hard worker and she wants everyone to be a hard worker."