2007 Circle K Teacher of the Year Award Candidate - Dr. Michael Frank

University of Arizona Athletics

Dr. Michael Frank

High School:
Empire

Subject(s):
Science

Dr. Michael Frank earned his Bachelors and Masters of Science degrees in Biology from the University of Illinois, Urbana and a Ph.D., in Biology from the University of Denver.

He has been an instructor of biology at the Community College of Aurora, a visiting Assistant Professor of genetics at Lake Forest College as well as a Research Fellow at the University of Arizona in the research labs.

Michael is one of the original teachers who worked for more than a year on the research and planning to design and develop the Science curriculum at Empire High School, the first high school in the country to replace textbooks with laptops. His students produce reports to present in class by using Power Point, Flash Animation, video or other media to support their work on biology concepts. In addition, Dr. Frank’s students work through multimedia activities online.

Dr. Frank is creative in his approach to teaching and always tries to relate the content to his students’ lives. He sets up extensive sciences labs so students can discover the laws of nature on their own with his facilitation. A student wrote, “Dr. Frank gives us the chance to have fun with science by creating games or nature walks during our Science Club/Olympiad meetings.” Dr. Frank believes the walks provide the students with an opportunity to learn more about the nature of Arizona from a hands-on experience.

Since all the students have laptops these activities can be done together in class without having to schedule a computer lab. Dr. Frank is committed to the success of Empire High School and serves on both the school and district level science curriculum and technology committees.

He was invited to speak along with the district’s superintendent at the Association of Education Publishers’ 2006 Publishing Forum on the topic of replacing textbooks with laptops because he is considered a leader in his field.