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Photo by Sam Harrel

FAIRBANKS — Not only is Wendy Ehnert the 2008 Outstanding Biology Teacher — she’s also modest.

Ehnert said the state has many quality biology teachers who deserve to recognized as well and credits her win to applying at the right time.

“It’s a big honor, but you have to make sure to keep it in perspective,” she said.

Ehnert, who teaches biology, astrobiology technology and Advance Placement biology, has been at Lathrop High School since 1995.

The National Association of Biology Teachers has presented the Outstanding Biology Teacher title annually since 1961 to a teacher from each state who displays teaching ability, experience, inventiveness, initiative, inherent teaching strengths and cooperation in the school and community.

“I’m very pleased that in my 21st year of teaching, people still think I’m doing something innovative,” Ehert said.

Ehnert also won the Siemens Award for Excellence in AP Teaching 2008 by having her students accumulate good scores during the Advance Placement exams. Ehnert said three other Lathrop teachers also were eligible for the award the same year. She was eligible for the award several times before and said her win was again made possible by timing.

In addition to awards, Ehnert won a fellowship from the M.J. Murdock Foundation. The fellowship allowed her to spend her summer working on a personal research project. Ehnert spent last summer working with Lawrence Duffy, graduate school interim dean and a biochemistry professor at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, and Arleigh Reynolds, a Salcha-based musher, on studying sled dog physiology and how to tell if dogs are ready to alter their exercise schedules. Mushing is one of Ehnert’s hobbies, and she will continue her research work during the upcoming summer.

Duffy said he knows Ehnert through her involvement in the Alaska Statewide High School Symposium, an intensive research opportunity for high school students.

“She’s very big on getting her students involved in research,” he said.

Ehnert uses research opportunities to inspire students to get more involved and interested in science, Duffy said.

“She’s very friendly, always helping and making time for people,” he said.

In addition to her sled dog research, Ehnert has researched dinosaurs in Northern Alaska and traveled to Antarctica to study phytoplankton. She coauthored a research paper, “Phytoplankton biomass and size fractions in surface waters of the Australian sector of the Southern Ocean,” and served as a NASA Phoenix mission education ambassador.

Ehnert said she loves biology because it is fun, relevant to current events and gives students a chance to be active and problem solve.

“There is always something new for me to learn,” she said.

Ehnert said her research work serves as an example of how the field of biology is always evolving with something new to be learned all of the time.

“She’s doing all of this to help her students,” Duffy said.

Ehnert has a bachelor’s degree in life science and a master’s degree in teaching from the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Throughout her career, she has taught a variety of science courses, including anatomy, chemistry and zoo education.

Ehnert and her husband, Larry, who also is a teacher at Lathrop, moved to Alaska to teach in Unalakleet after not finding work in Minnesota. The couple spent four years in Unalakleet before moving to Fairbanks.

“We were up for anything,” she said.