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=Welcom to the class Wiki for Mr. Detwiler=

About Me:
I'm a graduate of Pen Argyl Area Highschool (class of 1998) where I played football and was also on the track and field team as a thrower (Shotput, Discus and Javelin). I've always been interested in Biology and Ecology but my interetest didn't turn into pashion until I started College at Juniata where I was active in the Environmental Science program and spent way too much outside. I also played football and found my true obcession, Ice Hockey. After a year of trying to find a real job I decided to come to ESU for a MS in biology and started working on Herons and Egrets emphasizing their migratory patterns, foraging habits and reproductive behaviors in Pennsylvania and the rest of the northern parts of North America. My research has taken me into Canada and as far south as Costa Rica but is primarily centered at Wade Island in Harrisburg PA. I started teaching at Warren County Community College while I was writing my thesis and then moved into Northampton Community College as an instructor of Biology where I stayed for a year before returning to school to persue highschool level science education. Today I balance my time between playing hockey (goalie) and going to school at ESU.

Teaching Philosophy:
I believe that the best way to reach students is to keep them engaged and to directly target different learning styles with pointed activities or lecture components that react to individual learners. My classes have alot of variety as I love to include movies, discussions and group activities to break up the lecturing that often accompanies science classes. I also think that Biology is such a broad and dynamic topic that there is some facet of the discipline that should interest just about everyone, the challange is just finding that something. To that end I use an example driven teaching style that focuses on actual organisms and processes that you can see and experience first had, so I love to use local or colorful examples to tie a broad concept to an individual object, organism or process. Science should be fun and I strive to make it as fun as possible.

=Other Info:= =Check out my Nature Documentary! Thats right I was on TV, ya I'm famous.= =media type="custom" key="6654689"=