DR. JOHN L. COFFIN

Hi folks! Thanks for checking out my page!

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I’m a science teacher at Washburn Rural High School in Topeka, KS. I have a PhD in Biology from Kansas State University, two Bachelor's degrees from the University of Georgia, and am currently pursuing a Master's degree in Education from Fort Hays State University. As you can probably tell, my life's passion is for teaching and learning about the world around me.

During my PhD, I studied the mechanisms that generate and maintain the incredible array of biodiversity that we see around the world, focusing on how reproductive isolation evolves in fish living in extreme environments. In addition to teaching, I now spend my time conducting in-class research about how to improve biology education. I am passionate about teaching students and mentoring the next generation of scientists in the lab. I aim to continually improve my teaching abilities by incorporating multiple teaching strategies into my lesson plans so that ALL students, regardless of their background or previous abilities or knowledge, can succeed in my class. My ultimate goals for teaching are to improve the scientific literacy of my students to make them more informed citizens, and to inspire them to consider careers in evolutionary biology.

I'm glad you've found my page! Here, you’ll find all the details of my life as a science educator, from teaching successes and fails, to research and outreach efforts, to some of my vain attempts into photography and videography. I’d love to hear what you think!