Science Teacher Inspires With Experiments

Koh Ikeda’s North Hollywood High School science students have come to expect the unexpected from their high-energy teacher.

The scientist has been known to toss back a couple of mealworms during a biology lesson and has consumed a fair quantity of dry ice to illustrate a tricky chemistry concept.

Eager to demonstrate momentum and gravity, Ikeda has on more than one occasion taken his physics students golfing. And when he feels he needs to break the tension during a chemistry lesson, he takes out his guitar and sings “Good Titrations” to the tune of a popular Beach Boys song.

“Teaching’s exciting,” said Ikeda, who enjoys a reputation as an innovative, inspiring instructor. “When I see that students aren’t getting a difficult concept, I’ll stay up half the night thinking of a way to present it so they will. By and large, they’ll get it.”

Ikeda taught six of the nation’s top 10 1998 Advanced Placement scholars and has coached North Hollywood High’s Science Bowl team to victory two of the five times they have competed in recent years.

“Mr. Ikeda motivates us, which you don’t always find in teachers,” said Vinley Eng, 16, a recent North Hollywood High graduate and Science Bowl participant. “He’ll set up honors classes for kids who don’t want the pressure of AP classes. He just wants to see us do well.”

Ikeda, a Los Angeles native with degrees in the physical sciences and computer education, said he has always loved science. He has made it his mission, he said, to help his students grasp even the toughest concepts.

“There’s beauty in the simplicity about how things operate,” Ikeda said. “I love to get others to understand how the world works, to help them gain an appreciation about life.”

To do that, Ikeda spends several hours a day plus weekends preparing inventive lesson plans and labs for his students. He also meets with the Science Bowl team for intensive tutoring sessions during and after school and on weekends from September through February.

To develop the camaraderie and unity he believes is necessary to get them through the Science Bowl experience, Ikeda takes the team on a retreat at Lake Arrowhead during their winter break, where they work and relax together for several days.

“I always tell the kids, ‘If you win, great, but if you don’t, that’s great too,’ ” Ikeda said. “It’s more important to me that they mature from the experience, learn to work with others and simply give their best.”

Ikeda and three North Hollywood High School students recently participated in the Drug Abuse Research Team program at Stanford University. They developed a partnership with a UCLA scientist, who will work with them this year on a joint drug research project.

“Mr. Ikeda puts 100% into his classes, and he expects that of us, too,” said Carly Munson, 18, who was a student of Ikeda’s for four years. “He perseveres and always has a lesson plan or lab ready to reinforce our knowledge.”

Ikeda, who earned a bachelor’s degree from UC Berkeley and a master’s from Cal State Los Angeles, expects to complete his doctorate in education leadership from UCLA in the spring.

“Hopefully, my students will remember what I taught them,” said Ikeda, a recent recipient of a Fulfillment Fund Teacher-Counselor Recognition Award. “Life is more than just study. I want them to be better people, to be responsible. If they are, then I’ve done my job.”