Upper Dublin High School advanced geosciences and forensic science teacher, Richard Schmidt was one of only 97 recipients nationwide to be honored with the distinguished Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching by President Barack Obama. Schmidt has taken a creative approach to his lessons on oceanography as he instructs students on scuba diving in order to complete a lab in the school’s pool. Students who take Schmidt’s classes walk away from the semester with the knowledge and training to scuba dive as well as real world experience in the realm of oceanographic studies. This year, Schmidt’s students found a shipwreck on the bottom of the school pool and pieced together clues from the shipwreck to complete the class assignment. Even though Schmidt began performing this lab experiment for his students 10 years ago, he adjusts the assignment each year to give the program a fresh face.
