Indiana University honors Troy High School's Jason Orsborne with prestigious teaching award 
 

For Jason Orsborne, it isn’t enough for his students to be prepared for what they might face when they arrive at college. 

The Troy High School science teacher wants his students to already have a taste of what to expect when they start taking college courses.

“As for the science department, I have the privilege of serving as the department chair,” said Orsborne, who began his teaching career at Troy High School in 2006. “When I first started this position over 12 years ago, we talked in a department meeting about increasing rigor of our courses to provide students who are interested in STEM careers an opportunity to explore a variety of disciplines. In the science department, we now offer college credit courses in physics through Edison State Community College, as well as biology and chemistry, both through Indiana University. We also offer a weighted, advanced version of Anatomy and Physiology, and although it is not a college credit course, it has also proven to prepare students for potential careers in health and allied sciences.”

Recently, Indiana University, one of the schools with which Troy partners to offer college credit classes,  determined that Orsborne was the best high school teacher it had teaching its curriculum to prospective college students, honoring him with its Advance College Project Distinguished Faculty Award. This was the inaugural year for the award.

“When my name was called for the award at the annual ACP Chemistry Professional Development seminar, I was shocked and very honored to be chosen as the distinguished ACP faculty member for 2024. IU is very careful in their selection of ACP faculty members through a rigorous application process, and I was honored several years ago when they selected and trusted me to teach ACP Chemistry and uphold the high standards of academics for the program. 

“To be given this award amongst the many excellent teachers in the ACP program was unbelievable. I have had the privilege of working with the ACP Chemistry teachers over the last 12 years, and they are excellent, dedicated teachers and a valuable resource for lessons and ideas. I can only imagine the same is true of the educators selected for all other ACP disciplines offered at IU, which makes the award even more surreal. I am very thankful to IU for all of their support in the program and for choosing to honor their educators with such a special award. It is an amazing program and an amazing honor.”

The award was based on the nominations from Indiana University site visitors for all academic disciplines, not just chemistry, which Orsborne teaches. Each year, an assigned faculty member from the partner IU campus (for, Troy, it is Indiana University East) observes a lesson and evaluates the course rigor pertaining to exams and lab activities, as sample work, with names omitted, must be submitted to the assigned faculty member as part of the site visit. Nominations were reviewed by ACP faculty and one ACP teacher was selected for this year's honor. 

Orsborne said there are a number of advantages to students taking college credit courses while still in high school. Troy High School offers college-level classes in a number of subjects, not just science. 

“We offer many college credit classes at the high school, and there is a value to students for taking these courses in high school,” he said. “In most cases, the class sizes at Troy are much smaller than a college like IU. During a visit to the IU Bloomington campus a few years ago, I observed an IU faculty member during a lecture for the same course I teach at the high school, and there were 225 students in the lecture hall. With the course offered at high school, the average class size is 22-24, so students can get much more one-on-one attention to learn the content and get extra assistance with problems. 

“Additionally, for students who are interested in college and the traditional four-year path, not only do they get a jump start on their degree with free credits, which lessens the time and cost needed in college after high school, but these courses in high school help ease the students into the rigorous expectations and workloads of college courses.”

Orsborne said he sometimes hears from former students who are grateful they got their experience with college expectations while still at Troy.

“There is also some value in coaching students on how to study and manage time in college level courses while in high school, which makes the transition to college much more smooth,” he said. “I know that myself and several other colleagues who teach these college credit courses get emails from former students every year proclaiming how much the college credit courses prepared them for college, both in terms of academics and time management, so the courses offered seem to be working for our students.”

It’s not just the college courses Troy offers that students can benefit from, Orsborne said. He hopes his department offers a wide array of classes that will benefit students down whatever path they may choose.

“Additionally, we have honors courses for physical science and biology, which provide significant advancements when compared to the traditional curriculum,” he said. “Our hope with higher level courses is to spark an interest in our offered subjects that could lead to STEM careers, but also provide the students valuable critical thinking and problem-solving skills, science knowledge, and laboratory skills that would allow them to be successful in future science courses, even at the college level. 

“We also try to provide real world examples of the use of the subject in the real-world, which are related to careers, such as how molecules are being specifically engineered to recognize specific proteins related to diseases. I have a former student who reached out to me via email recently, reminding me that he gained a love of chemistry and biochemistry from my ACP chemistry class and the ACP biology class at THS. He just finished his undergraduate degree in biochemistry at the University of Dayton, and is pursuing a PhD in Chemistry from Ohio State beginning this year. Success stories like this one are one of the reasons why we choose to offer these rigorous, advanced courses to help prepare students for college.”