Featured Senior: Chris Pollock ’12

Major: education (adolescent/young adult/integrated science)
Hometown: Plain City

As a student teacher at Arcadia High School, Chris Pollock made science class fun. Students built electric motors and mazes out of aluminum foil and tape to learn about magnetism and electricity. In another class, students learned about hydraulics by building robotic arms using syringes and water.

Pollock’s favorite activity, however, utilized an earthquake-simulation table that Arcadia purchased with money from a grant. Students built two-and-a-half-foot tall towers out of balsa wood, and on the last day of that unit, placed the towers on the shaker table to see how the towers withstood an earthquake, if at all.

Pollock completed both his junior and senior blocks with Arcadia teacher Barb Tidd, who has been teaching for 32 years and has developed an impressive catalog of interactive science labs for her students. “She knows how to interact with her students and make it fun,” he said. “We have the same teaching philosophies … I’ve tried to keep the same class structure that she used.”

Tidd has been a tremendous resource for Pollock, as have the faculty members at Findlay. “… the faculty were very helpful in critiquing my teaching style and helping me become a more successful educator,” he said. He noted that Todd Krueger, instructor of physics, “made a huge impact on my time while at Findlay. While taking his physics classes, he not only demonstrated a true passion for physics, but he also was able to communicate and bring the information down to his students’ understanding level … I hope that when I become a teacher, I am able to assist my students in the same manner that Professor Krueger guides his students and enables them to learn on a daily basis.”

Pollock was one of a group of students selected to receive a Choose Ohio First (COF) scholarship. The primary objectives of the COF Scholarship Program are to support increased higher education participation and success of Ohio students majoring in STEMM and STEMM education fields (science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medicine).

With several other COF scholarship recipients, Pollock participated in Fear Factor, an event organized by students in the environmental, safety and occupational health management program. Pollock’s team won the event for their age group. “It was interesting to get to do some of the things the people in that major do on a daily basis,” he said.

Pollock also was a student-athlete and chose to attend Findlay partly because he had the opportunity to continue playing football. “Participating in football made making friends and meeting new people a breeze,” he said. Outside of campus activities, Pollock enjoys hunting as a way to experience some peace and quiet.

With graduation approaching, Pollock is considering the career path he will pursue and is confident in his options. “The University of Findlay has provided me with all the essential tools to become a successful educator,” he said. “Now, the time has come to implement everything I have learned during my time here.”