Brad Metz laughs as he discusses his methods of using humor to engage students in biology. Metz believes that levity is a critical approach to teaching. Patrick Sullivan | Washtenaw Voice
Alice McGuire
Staff Writer
Bradley Metz is a full time biology instructor at Washtenaw Community College, known among his students for making science accessible, fun, and unforgettable.
Upon first meeting for an interview with The Washtenaw Voice, Metz asked, “I’m gonna know the answer to these questions, right? Are they gonna be on the test?”
As a child, he was allergic to nature and unable to stay away from it.
“When we moved to Michigan, my parents got me a fish tank–because ‘How can you be allergic to fish?’” said Metz, describing how this early experience led to a fascination with “everything living.” For nearly fifty years, Metz has consistently maintained a fish tank (or tanks) and/or a pond.
Metz spent his undergrad years studying “biology stuff” at Eastern Michigan University, until a flyer for a graduate program at Northeastern University caught his eye and shifted his focus to marine biology. During a spring semester at Northeastern, a professor approached him and asked him about his plans for the fall, ultimately giving him the opportunity to study “the most amazing things in the world–seaweeds.” It was during this time that he also discovered his love of teaching.
“I wouldn’t do anything else. This is my love. This is it. I tell students in my class–if I won the lottery, I would pay someone to grade my papers…and I would still teach,” said Metz.
Aida Labowitch had originally taken biology as a prerequisite with the intention of ultimately going into human services, but she is currently reconsidering her future path, while keeping biology at the heart of her studies. “It was just something about the way that he spoke and was so invested in everything that he did that I…wanted to do that too!” she said.
When asked how studying biology had changed the way in which she looked at the world, Labowitch emphasized the ways in which studying biology helped reduce self consciousness around “being human” and cited a recent earthworm dissection lab as a lesson which changed her perspective.
“We are ecosystems and there’s just so much going on everywhere–and it’s not something to be intimidated by. Not death or predation or disease. They’re just things that happen. And sometimes they suck. And sometimes there’s things that we can do about them. But they’re normal. They’re natural,” she said.
Susanne Walsh is a returning student who describes her major as “essentially biology.” For Walsh, science has always been her “happy place.” Having originally studied geology at Eastern Michigan University, life circumstances shifted her focus towards biology–particularly the effects of diet on cancer and cancer treatment as well as the ways in which human bodies necessitate individualized medical care.
Both Walsh and Labowitch expressed gratitude for the ways in which Brad pays special attention to the needs of his students, with Walsh recalling a time in which Metz reworked a lesson about the cell cycle due to a handful of his students effectively saying, “Hey, this works better for my brain.”
While Brad does not rehearse for his classes, he approaches them with the same attitude as an actor before a show. “If you know the content–for me at least–you can have fun with it,” said Metz. One aspect of his lectures which students often remember is his ability to craft metaphors that connect biological processes to aspects of everyday life, such as using the imagery of cookbooks to illustrate trickier concepts like protein synthesis.
“I don’t think I could forget his class,” said Labowitch.
“I think it can change a student’s trajectory sometimes,” said Walsh, emphasizing how encouraging it is to find a teacher who demonstrates what it looks like to be passionate about a subject and who is able to accommodate different learning styles.
“I think that if seaweed were more accessible and able to be a potted plant, that should be the gift that every student gives him at the end of the semester,” said Labowitch, who expressed concerns over whether or not gifts of dried seaweed would make him sad.
When asked whether or not he would be sad if he was given deceased seaweed, Metz confirmed that he would not mind as long as it also happened to be delicious.
