EL native receives prestigious teaching award

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East Liverpool native Amy Hutchman Miller was chosen as the recipient of the Martha Holden Jennings Foundation's Arthur S. Holden Teacher Award for Excellence in Science Education, which is presented to only one Ohio teacher annually.

Miller, who currently teaches at McKinley Senior High School in the Canton City School District, said the foundation sends only one application to each district in the state. Miller, about to begin her 19th year of teaching, said that at the time the application was sent to her district, she was working as a science coach, working with other science teachers, and was part of the process to nominate a teacher to apply. Miller said she threw out the idea of doing a forensic sclass, and as a result it was decided she should apply.

"I knew I wrote a good proposal and I knew I had a good idea," said Miller, adding that she was nonetheless very surprised to receive the award, due to its exclusivity.

Miller was given $7,500 as part of the award, which she used for kits and lab materials for the forensic class, which was offered to students who had not passed the Ohio Graduation Test. "That was the focus of my award," said Miller, "to get them interested in science and give them confidence."

Miller said she chose forensics due to its current popularity as a field of science, even though it was not her area of expertise. "I learned a lot," she said. "Going into it, I didn't know a lot about forensics."

In Miller's class, which she said was "extremely lab-based," students studied ballistics, bones, blood splatters, entomology, blood types, and how to distinguish between different powders.

"I had these kids using trigonometry to figure out the point of contact from a blood splatter," she said, adding that they were using math they had never been able to do before.

Miller also invited many guest speakers from various colleges to talk to the class, which she said was possibly one of the reasons she was selected for the award.

Miller said the class was fun to teach and that she will be teaching it again this school year. "They really seemed to enjoy the class. I think it was successful," she said.

Miller said the percentage of students who passed the OGT went up, but, "We're still not where we need to be yet."

Other things that improved were students' passing rate and attendance from previous years, when the class was environmental science. "If you create something they enjoy, they're going to be there," she said.

Miller said that this school year the class will be open to all students, which will result in more of a mix of student abilities. "I think it's going to help a lot," she said.

When she was chosen for the award, Miller was also invited to a large seminar with many of the state's top education figures in attendance. "It's really a big deal for them, and it certainly was a special evening for me," she said.

Miller was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship in 1994 and is currently working on a Masters Degree in biology at Kent State University.