Harrison H.S. Teacher Honored for Making Science Fun, In And Out of the Classroom

Beau Broering remembers the trick in which he and his fellow high school students would dip a rose in liquid nitrogen, give it to a girl, and she would then break the frozen rose over his head. Science wasn’t just about freezing stuff, but it was really cool, and it’s because of those memories that Broering – a UC graphic design student who’s graduating next spring – is honoring Harrison High School science teacher Steve Brickner with UC’s Cincinnati USA Outstanding Educator Award.

Brickner, a UC alumnus and an 18-year veteran of teaching in his second career, is one of four K-12 educators in the region to be honored with the award at UC’s Commencement Ceremony at 10 a.m., Saturday, Dec. 13, in Fifth Third Arena at Shoemaker Center. Brickner will be presented with a $1,000 UC scholarship to be awarded to a high school senior of his choosing who plans to attend UC in the 2009-2010 academic year.

Brickner was selected from a pool of 18 nominations from soon-to-graduate UC students who wanted to honor a K-12 educator who inspired them to work toward a college degree. The nominations were reviewed by a UC committee that included representation from the Office of the President, UC faculty, staff and students.

Broering, 22, is spending his autumn quarter in New York, gaining valuable cooperative education experience with C&G Partners, an internationally recognized design consultancy. He credits his high school teacher with making learning fun, even through his five-year program at UC. “The more you have fun, the more you fuel your passion of learning, and although I really liked physical science, art has always been my passion,” Broering says.

As Broering wrote his nomination to honor his former high school physics teacher, he remembered outings on the football field for studies on kinetic and potential energy. Broering and other Harrison High School students would assist Mr. Brickner outside the classroom with entertaining “Physics is Phun” science shows for children in elementary schools and at Cincinnati Shriners Hospital for Children. “Some of the kids got to partake in our experiments and it really made their day,” Broering says. He recalls one of the most impressive demonstrations as the green silo experiment, in which students would demonstrate that dust was combustible.

Brickner also organizes Harrison High School’s science-related partnerships with UC, including the annual Tests of Engineering Aptitude, Mathematics and Science (TEAMS) competition for the Junior Engineering Technical Society (JETS) hosted by the UC College of Engineering, and the college’s annual bridge-building competition. Harrison High School is also a pilot school in a UC College of Engineering’s Learn Across the Curriculum STEMM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math and Medicine) project, and Brickner participated as a judge last spring in UC’s fourth-annual Science & Engineering Expo for students in grades 7-12 grades across Butler, Clermont, Hamilton, Preble and Warren counties.

“He didn’t come to work every day to collect a paycheck. He came because he loved helping people,” Broering says. “I hope someday my children will have a teacher like Mr. Brickner.”

Brickner holds an associate of mechanical engineering from UC and earned his bachelor’s degree in engineering from Tristate University in Angola, Ind. He worked as a mechanical engineer through the first half of his career until he says his “mid-life crisis” sent him into teaching, “the greatest job there is.” He earned his master’s degree from the College of Mt. St. Joe. “The only thing I regret is that I wish I had started teaching sooner.”

The “Physics is Phun” shows are growing in popularity, Brickner says. Students are even performing at homemakers group luncheons and nursing homes. A family science day organized at the Harrison Library drew 300 people who discovered the fun of science, as students performed demonstrations at 10 different stations in the library. “You can just look at these kids and see the improvement of their communication skills and the knowledge of the material – it just shines, and that’s what I used to see with Beau. When these high school students would perform in front of elementary school gatherings, you could hear a pin drop. The high school students were their heroes, and these programs are still going strong.”

Brickner says he’s overwhelmed by the honor from his former student. “I got all choked up when I was called about the award and I told Beau this was the highlight of my career, This is the peak.”

This December marks the fourth year that UC has presented the Cincinnati USA Outstanding Educator Awards to recognize the lifelong inspiration of K-12 educators. The students and their honorees will join UC President Nancy L. Zimpher at a special luncheon that will take place from noon to 1:30 p.m., Saturday, Dec, 13, in Room 850 of the Richard E. Lindner Center.

Read More About the Cincinnati USA Outstanding Educator Award

UC Commencement Web site