‘A Great Motivator’ : Teacher and mentor Duane Nichols is excited about science. And about teaching. His students respond by consistently winning national awards.
Alhambra High science student Steve Tsai was wondering about something more baffling to him than DNA:
How could he tell whether a girl liked him?
Specifically, another Alhambra student attending a national science meeting with him in Chicago.
Tsai, 17, knew exactly whom to ask. That evening, after a long day exhibiting his research on viruses for members of the American Assn. for the Advancement of Science, he went to teacher Duane Nichols.
Actually, “Mr. Nichols brought it up,” Tsai says. “He was saying, ‘How close are you with that girl?’ He was telling me that sometimes you can tell (if a person likes you) by the things the other person does. It doesn’t always have to be with words.
“What he said made me feel better. I felt . . . that there was something I could base the test on. There was a way I could know.”
Nichols has an uncanny way of helping students find the right questions--and answers--whether the topic is molecular biology or, well, personal chemistry.
That ability and an easygoing but demanding teaching style have made him one of the top science instructors in the state.
It’s also enough to get 75 students to his special biomedical research studies class three times a week at 7 a.m.--45 minutes before regular classes begin. There, ninth- through 12th-graders conduct research that has helped lay groundwork for a dynasty of sorts:
In the 11 years Nichols has taught biomedical research, seven of his students have finished in the top 40 of the prestigious Westinghouse science talent search, an annual competition. These finalists include senior Anna Belle Kim, who just earned a $1,000 scholarship for research on enzymes.
Alhambra has produced enough Westinghouse finalists to rank seventh in the nation and first among schools west of the Mississippi, Nichols says.
In addition, the school has won numerous grants and awards in national science contests. This week, the Edison/McGraw scholarship sponsored by the National Science Supervisors Assn. named three Alhambra students among five finalists.
Half the biomedical students also hold research internships at facilities including Caltech, UCLA, County-USC Medical Center, Arco and City of Hope.
Nichols’ compassion inspires many of those successes, students say.
“He’s someone you can open up to,” says Tsai, a senior heading to Caltech next fall. “He’s interested in who we are.”
It’s 7 a.m. Wearing a gray suit with leather elbow patches, the 6-foot-4 teacher is at the board, listing science contest deadlines and the names of students recently accepted to colleges.
Then two ninth-graders present oral reports on leading 19th- and 20th-Century scientists as part of the class’s college seminar format.
The first student stands and recites complex information almost from memory. When Nichols asks for evaluations, a student says the speaker knew the material so well it sometimes sounded as if she were reading.
“I think she could have used some visual aids,” Nichols adds. “All in all I think it was a good presentation. You just needed a little more variety.”
The class applauds, as it does for every presentation.
The second student has better visual aids--a slide projector. But he sits behind the machine to give his report, so few in the class can see him. From the back of the room, it looks as if he’s a ventriloquist.
“One thing,” Nichols says as the student finishes. “We can’t see you. Stand up and take questions. . . . (But it was) a really outstanding job.”
Turning shy ninth-graders into contest winners is just part of his busy day. Besides the biomedical class, he teaches two physiology classes, one period of biology and devotes the rest of his time to student conferences and chairing the science department.
He also coordinates a $1-million grant to USC for education of science teachers and is past president of the California Biology Education Assn., a teachers’ group.
“Every spare minute I’m (at school) I’m either meeting with a student or working with them,” Nichols says. “I’m on the phone at 10 at night with students who are having problems with their research projects. Sometimes even on weekends I’ll meet with them. I try hard to make Saturday my family day. I could be incredibly busy if I didn’t try to do that.”
Nichols appears to balance these demands calmly. However, he says, “on the inside I have constant lists of things I have to get done, and I’m driven by that. People say I’m low-key and I’m amazed, because underneath I have all this other stuff going on.”
“Anybody who can get students to come at 7 a.m. has to be a great motivator and role model,” says Assistant Principal Julie Hadden.
“I think his charisma is part of it. He’s very warm. He has an extremely sharp sense of humor. (And) he knows all about the kids.
“There’s another thing he does. There’s a term: He walks the talk. He doesn’t just give lip service to science. He knows about it. He’s on top of what’s going on. He’s excited by science.”
About four times a year, some of Nichols’ students exhibit their research at national scientific meetings. Sometimes, conference organizers pay for transportation, but other times the students or the community pitch in.
Although Nichols often gets to know students because they take his class for four years, he finds traveling together gives them a special chance to talk.
“When I was a senior, we went to a science conference in San Francisco,” says 1989 graduate Betty Hung, a junior at Harvard University. Hung talked to Nichols about a Young Democrats club she had started and how hard it was to get people interested.
Again, Nichols brought up the topic first. “He told me he actually had spoken to some students and asked what it would take for them to become interested. He gave me advice on what they had said and how I might go about getting the club going. I was so appreciative that he knew what was going on in my life without my having talked to him about it.”
“Sometimes I feel closer to those kids on those trips than I do in the classroom,” Nichols says. “And I relish those experiences.”
A Santa Monica native, Nichols, 50, graduated from Brigham Young University with a degree in biological science. He wanted to teach in Southern California, so he went straight to Alhambra and has remained for 24 years.
Married 26 years, he says none of his five children, ages 9 to 23, has staked out a career in science.
He has received two job offers from universities but plans to stay at Alhambra until he retires. “I hate the daily commute from Walnut,” he says. “But I just like the kids here. . . . I keep throwing opportunities at them. What makes the class a little unique is that kids are self-driven and aren’t directed by me in everything they do.
“We want them to be the best, and in most cases they are excited to be the best. We have great students and a great faculty, but if somebody besides their parents doesn’t push some of them, they don’t do the little extra. . . . That’s where I come in. . . . I become the prodder.” He pauses. “(And) hopefully, not the nagger.”
Most alumni seem grateful for this encouragement. Last month, Nichols received a letter from a 1977 graduate who had seen a news story on Anna Kim’s Westinghouse award. Loretta Chou, who is in Washington, D.C., finishing her residency in orthopedic surgery, said she went into medicine because Nichols had made high school physiology so much fun. “I just wanted you to know you in influenced me, too,” she wrote.
“That is your pay,” Nichols says. “Knowing you helped these kids make important decisions in their lives. And I think I’m lucky. I work with kids who are vitally interested in what’s going on around them, and they tend to respond easily.”
