Mr. James Danch, Colonia High School’s Science Research and AP Chemistry Teacher, will be receiving the Woodbridge Township School District Teacher of the Year Award. Mr. Danch has been teaching at Colonia High School for 30 years, and he has won more than three awards for his teaching ability. Mr. Danch teaches all the Science Research classes, 1-4, AP Chemistry, and Methods of Science Investigation. The Science Rearch class was established in the 2000-01 school year and has received numerous awards at science fairs.
Early Years
Mr. Danch came to Colonia High School during the 1984 school year. Back then, he was not yet a science teacher, but was a student teacher with the science department. As to why he became a teacher, Danch explained, “ I was so interested in science as a child and I enjoyed sharing my enthusiasm with my class.”
Teaching style
Teaching Style
Mr. Danch has his own teaching style. Rachel Triebwasser, a junior at Colonia High School, has Mr. Danch for AP Chemistry and Science Research 3. According to Triebwasser,” he teaches through anecdotes and life experiences.” Triebwasser is excited to take Science Research 4 next year with Danch because of his intriguing projects. One intriguing project was that of Mr. Mark Mentzel, with a prize winning project that tried to see if the scent of a predator, in this case South American toads, would deter cockroaches.
Mr. Danch’s favorite part of his class is,” creating new lessons and methods of getting students to understand the process of science.” Mr. Danch enjoys “when students do an experiment or science project and get excited by the result[s].” His least favorite part of class– cleaning up.
Hardships
Since Mr. Danch teaches Science Research, he takes on a lot more work and hardships. He goes to science fairs with all of his students, helps them with field work, orders all necessary supplies for his students and helps them in immeasurable ways. One of his biggest challenges is “lack of equipment compared to some of the other schools. We don’t have access to some types of high-tech equipment.”
However, Mr. Danch overcomes this with determination. He spends sometimes days at a time in the field, but the real number “depends on what sorts of projects my students are doing. Sometimes I’ve gone away and spent days in the field with students.” However, this time has paid off. Mr. Danch’s Science Research students have earned 84 awards between 2011 and 2014.
