My favorite famous person

For some of us, the closest we'll ever get to fame is to know or be related to someone who has become famous. I feel that way with my connection to my sister RevaBeth Loveridge-Russell who recently won the 2006 Science Educator of the Year given by the Utah Museum of Natural History.

The following article, published in the Provo, Utah "Daily Herald", does a great job of describing what a great job my sister does and why she deserves the recent honors:

Building a learning playground for students
CATHY ALLRED - North County Staff
Wednesday, November 22, 2006

RevaBeth Russell begins teaching first period in Lehi High School classroom #105 at just past Fluorine before Oxygen by her wall clock. Each number, 1 through 12, is covered by its corresponding element from the Periodic Table according to its atomic number. The time spent in her classroom is an academic experience most students will never forget. Russell has won multiple awards for her talent and skill in entertaining, captivating and teaching her students.

"After great, great thought, you know I get some money with this latest award, I thought I would get a hearing aid for you guys, wouldn't that be awesome?" she asks the class. "And by the way I'm wearing a karyotype." A standardized arrangement of all the chromosomes of a cell, her "Designer Genes" T-shirt is part of the lesson on
chromosomes and replication that was being taught in her AP Biology class Friday. Visual and hands-on demonstrations, fun facts, sing-alongs, analogies from her life and mnemonic games are all part of the magical weave of scientific knowledge that Russell has created in her classroom for 24 years.

"Mrs. Russell places high priority on hands-on learning experiences," LHS Principal Chuck Bearce wrote in his recommendation for her latest award. "Students grow plants, hatch butterflies, and care for animals in her classroom." She grabs a large towel having a student hold one end and she the other, both twisting it until it has "condensed" to its smallest shape demonstrating part of the replication process for a chromosome.

"Let me finish this and then I'll get excited about something else," Russell tells the students after getting sidetracked onto telomeres, end caps of chromosomes.

At first glimpse, her classroom is a cluttered disarray of plants, posters, bugs, shells and bones but it is an attention deficit disorder person's learning layground. Long-dead cicadas, large brown bugs, are glued to the ceiling as though they are just crawling out of the air vent. Students have cut, constructed and colored paper into "viruses" and strung them on a continuous cord around the room above their desks. Signs, posters, witty cartoons about sciences abound in the room. "It takes Alkynes to make a world," reads a bumper sticker.

A live and large African turtle, dubbed by Russell as "Turtle," reposes in a backroom corner while the class listens to their teacher tell them when they have spaghetti for dinner at home they can show their families the anaphase process with rigatoni and spaghetti noodles.

"Overheads are so boring, I'm getting bored," she says and asks students to get out their hymnals. They sing "Diploid" by RevaBeth Russell to the tune of the Flintstone's theme song singing about games and chromosomes, ending with a loud "Yabba Dabba Do."

She takes out a box of unmatched socks asking students to find the homologous chromosomes as she pulls socks out and holds them up for the class. Eventually, she ends up with a pair of socks on her head, socks tucked down her Tshirt, her pants, a pair in each hand and a pair in her mouth. Sorting the socks becomes a lesson in genetics.

"What phase is this?" Russell said. "That's right, metaphase."

The bell announces the end of her first class ringing at nearly Beryllium past Fluorine. During the break, she is able to talk about her most recent award - the 2006 Science Educator of the Year given by the Utah Museum of Natural History. Russell remains modest about the attention and positions she has earned. "It's like when an airplane lands on time, it wasn't just the pilot, there are 60 other people that made that landing possible," she said, comparing it to her success in teaching.

Other honors she has won include 1997 Outstanding High School Life Science Educator, 1992 Outstanding Biology Teacher, 1994 Alpine School District Access in Excellence Award, 2006 Environmental Educator, a USA Today US Teacher Third Team 2002 and the 1996 Woodrow Wilson Fellowship Foundation High School Biology Teacher Award.

A self-proclaimed dyslexic, Russell harnesses curiosity and guides creative discovery through the wonders of science. "She teaches and reaches all children regardless of their learning styles," Brenda Peterson, LHS English teacher and department chair, wrote in her recommendation for Russell. "She is also affectionately known by her neighborhood children as 'Miss Wizard.' "

Biology Hymn
By ReveBeth Russell
Here is Mr. Nucleotide
Sung to tune of "If You Chance to Meet a Frown"
Here is Mr. Nucleotide,
Pentose for his nose
One eye is a phosphate,
The other is a nitrogenous base.

Congratulations, RevaBeth!!