Science Education teacher a ‘cut above’

Posted on 20 April 2015

Director of the Salters’ Advanced Chemistry project and teacher training science curriculum programme leader Chris Otter has been named in the Times Education Supplement as ‘a ball of energy and one of the most enthusiastic teachers I worked with’.

Paying tribute to his former colleague, Richard Spencer, Biology Teacher at Middlesbrough College, who has been shortlisted for the prestigious one million dollar Global Teacher Prize, said Chris “… radiated a love of chemistry, was unfailingly positive and had a cracking sense of humour. She filled me with laughter so many times…”

Richard added, “Chris encouraged students to participate in extracurricular chemistry projects and relished the challenge of inspiring them beyond the subject specifications. However, like many excellent teachers, her success in the classroom ultimately took her out of it, as she was appointed Director of the Salters’ Advanced Chemistry project at the University of York.”

Chris joined the Department of Education at York in 2002 having spent the previous four years teaching A level Salters’ Chemistry at Bede College in Billingham, working with Richard. Prior to that she worked as second in department in Hall Garth School in Middlesbrough.

As leader of the Salters’ Advanced Chemistry course at the University of York, Chris directs a unique, context led course that has been studied by approximately 200,000 AS and A level students from over 400 schools nationwide during her career at York to date. The course has Russian, Swedish and Catalan versions and is also studied across the globe, including Germany and Kazakhstan. She is currently working with practicing teachers and the OCR examinations board to develop new resources for the revised A level specifications and delivering CPD courses help schools prepare for thenew 2015 science curriculum requirements. For further information about the University of York Science Education Group and the Salters’ curriculum development at York please see http://www.york.ac.uk/education/research/uyseg/

Chris has also inspired hundreds of aspiring teachers at the University of York for which she is the curriculum area programme leader for the science PGCE graduate teacher training course. To find out more please see http://www.york.ac.uk/education/pgce/