LM_Summer

Jake Knox and Daniel Rashid, 2015 winners,

demonstrate their flaming oscillator (Rubens’

tube) which uses propane in a pressurized

tube with speaker to visualize sound waves.

Paul Ritter

Pontiac Township High School

Three years ago, Pontiac Township High School

collaborated with the University of Illinois on the

Celebrating High School Innovators (CHSI) awards

program. It was an experiment that has yielded great

results and now features Illinois State University and

Millikin University as partners. The introductory language

on the

pretty much sums up the purpose:

“Too much emphasis is put on grades and test scores.

Instead, we recognize high school students for

accomplishing amazing things, regardless of their GPA,

ACT or any other acronym. Have you taken great ideas

and made them a reality? Tell us what you’ve done that’s

innovative and creative, and you might be chosen as one

of the most innovative high school students in Illinois!”

Paul Ritter, a biology, ecology and earth science teacher

at Pontiac Township High School who has achieved

national recognition, is the director and co-founder of the

By Michael Chamness

IASA Director of Communications

Celebrating High School Innovators

awards program–

Looking for

students doing extraordinary things

CHSI program. It’s just one of many initiatives for Ritter, who

won the 2014 White House Presidential Award for Innovation

in Environmental Education, and was named the National

Environmental Science Teacher of the Year in 2011–12. His

International Prescription Pill and Drug Disposal Program

(P2D2) was named the number one environmental program

in the nation by the United Nations in 2012 for leading his

own students to properly dispose of over 3.5 million pounds

of pharmaceuticals.

Other significant projects Ritter has led at Pontiac Township

High School include the Cell Phone Recycling Program,

the ecology class “Adopt a Highway” Project, the Ecology

Billboard project, the Student Weather Radio Program,

and the Bio-diesel program. Ritter’s courses and projects

have been a source of inspiration for many of his students

who have gone on to become environmental filmmakers,