Dr. Bill Odom has been a science teacher at the Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science since 1996. While it is tempting to dump him into the category of “Biology Teacher,” Odom”s emphasis is in some ways much broader and in others much more tightly defined. He is a self described photosynthiac — someone who is really, really interested in photosynthesis — and his deep passion for all things organic can become infectious. It is not uncommon to wander into one of Odom”s classes and hear 16 year olds arguing passionately, not about Britney Spears or the Jonas Brothers, but about cellular biology and genetics. His respect for the intellectual curiosity of his students and his status as MSMS”s unofficial Mardi Gras MC has cemented his place as one of the most popular and beloved teachers in the school”s history.
What did you do before you came to MSMS?
Well, I grew up in New Orleans. I went to public high school, public everything. I went to college undergraduate at the University of New Orleans and started graduate school at University of Southern Mississippi and finished at (Louisiana State University). I have my doctorate in plant physiology and biochemistry. After that, I was at Kansas State University working on a fellowship. It was called NASA Specialized Center for Research and Training in Gravitational Biology. It was a deal where we studied the growing of plants in zero gravity. Basically, we were part of a group studying the effects of micro-gravity on living things. There were five or so of these centers established in the country and ours was charged with the cellular organismic level.
So you sent plants into outer space?
Yeah, and we had some brine shrimp up there, too. What we were trying to look at with our group was the effects of micro-gravity in the context of trying to grow plants in space. Out there the roots don”t know to go down any more, so you would have to convince them to go where the water is somehow. So we were looking at ways to do that. I was there for about five years.
How did you get to MSMS?
I just applied. I answered an ad. The first of it was to try to get closer to home. We were coming to the end of the grant I was working on and I was looking for something else. It seemed like a pretty unique teaching opportunity, and that”s why I”m still here. There ain”t a better teaching job.
What is it you like about MSMS?
In the context of the classroom it is about learning, it”s not about being a classroom manager. It”s about the knowledge. So you aren”t distracted by all the peripheral things. In that vein there are many other aspects, too. One is I am interested in introducing students who are interested in science to research. And that”s been one of the things I”ve always been focused on here is to keep them involved with opportunities to do original research. I”ve enjoyed the research I”ve done in the past, but this gives me the opportunity to see all kinds of other research, and learn a lot myself.
Why do you think it”s important to teach this kind of high level science to these kids?
Well, we have a host of classes here they can”t get anywhere else that really push them to the limit. One of the biggest challenges in teaching is dealing with the big range of students that are all in the same room at the same time. You know you struggle trying to push the one at the top further ahead, and cope with remediating the ones who are behind the curve. And you never have time to deal with them all. Here, that range is narrowed. We have a college schedule here, so you can spend more time working with individuals or individual groups. I teach an independent study class right now with Dr. Nancy MacNeill on medicinal chemistry. It”s fantastic. Dr. MacNeill an I are learning as much from each other as the students are learning from us.
It reminds me of my graduate school experiences in that it”s just pure learning for the students in the context of watching your mentors argue about science. The students are trying to figure out who”s right and they have to start thinking for themselves without the benefit of anything being necessarily easy.
What is it you find so fascinating about science?
When I was younger, originally I thought I would go into medicine. I worked at a medical school while I was an undergraduate at the University of New Orleans. And I was kind of struck by the population. There were very few students there who seemed to be interested in the science in medicine. At that time, they seemed more interested in making money. So, that kind of turned me away from medicine, but it turned me on to science. I was doing the lab work — at the time I was slicing cat brains — for this guy who was an M.D., Ph.D. and a clinical psychologist. He was instrumental in telling me to finish school. I”d been out for four or five years. So, I went back and finished my undergrad. I really liked the research in terms of asking the questions and then trying to find an approach to answer the question.
What are the biggest changes in the way you teach from when you began in ”96 to today?
I think it”s a big challenge to get the students today to read. There are lots of other venues available. The students who are coming here now have grown up with technology. It”s no longer new for us to have Internet. Kids today look stuff up on their phone. We need to look at interfacing some of these newer technologies into the classroom, and that”s something we try to do here. We want them to become tools though, not take the place of those concepts that you have to get.
One of the differences here is students always want to hear, “What”s the objective here? Why are we doing this?” Too many times they feel like I”m giving them busy work, when actually that is one of my pet peeves. I hate busy work. I”ve always tried to get the students to broaden their minds in terms of having a better educated society. I think the interface between science and society is tantamount to a functioning society. Everything we do has underpinnings in science these days, especially as we look forward to this genomic revolution.
What”s the plan down the road? Are you going to stay here?
I hope so. The school is evolving. We”re in a situation now where I think we”re kind of at a crossroads. We need to look ahead and try and figure out how to attract students. Katrina was an issue in terms of people just leaving the state and coming back and deciding if they want to leave home again to come to this school. I think it was pretty open when the school was opened 20 years ago. The school was about five or six years old when I got here. We need to get back on the cutting edge of education, and hopefully that”s something that won”t take too long.
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
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