burrell stultz: inspiring generations to love science
Teach science for long, and you learn to be flexible. Paradigms change. Knowledge that seems irrefutable one day might be altered by discovery the next. No one knows this fact of life better than Burrell Stultz, who’s taught Collegiate’s third and fourth graders since February 1968.
In fact, the impermanence of the subject matter – the recent demotion of Pluto to dwarf planet status, for example -- is one of the many reasons that she’s still excited, still fresh, and still eager to make the drive to North Mooreland Road each day.
“Everything we learn, everything we teach, we make it a point to say to the children, ‘This is what we know right now,’” she said. “We try to help them understand that science changes all the time.”
What hasn’t changed after almost 39 years is Burrell’s love for teaching and for the children who walk through the door of her classroom in the Watt Library and Technology Building.
“Burrell really cares about her students,” said Dr. Jill Hunter, LS head. “She wants them to take responsibility for their learning, but she’s there to support them in any way she can. “She’s a great teacher and role model for all of us in the Lower School.”
A native of Petersburg and a University of Richmond graduate, Burrell began her Collegiate career almost by accident. In December 1967, she substituted for a day in the Lower School. That day became a three-week stint which, she didn’t realize at the time, was actually her audition.
Shortly after Christmas, the husband of the Lower School science teacher was transferred. Burrell agreed to fill in but only until the end of the term. “It didn’t work out that way,” she said with a laugh.
Back then, the science lab was a room on the driveway side of the West Gymnasium. There was little equipment, only a few Styrofoam balls that served as models of molecules, several posters, and a file cabinet.
“We made do,” she said in her typical humble, understated manner. “We went from there to today. We’ve grown every year.”
To be sure.
The curriculum, which she teaches in the classroom she helped design, now includes units in life science, physical science, and earth science. Children learn about all forms of energy and, of course, the solar system. She has plenty of visual aids at her disposal.
“We integrate science with all parts of the curriculum,” she added. “I try to help them understand that science is for life and for living.”
Students learn much more than just science under Burrell’s guidance. She has high expectations, and in a lab setting with plenty of distractions and only a glass wall separating her room from the busy hallway, a gentle but firm way of holding their attention. She’s well prepared and organized. She speaks softly but with passion. Children leave her class with a love for science.
“The excitement the children show hasn’t changed over the years,” she said. “They ask questions. I don’t mind having children ask questions all the time. It’s astounding what they can learn if they have the opportunities.
Teaching at Collegiate is not all Burrell does with her time, of course. She and John, her husband of 50 years and a retired insurance company executive, serve as volunteers at UR and at Reveille United Methodist Church. They love to travel and spend as much time as possible with their daughter Lisa Moore, who lives in Athens, GA, with her husband Craig and daughters Morgan, 19, and Claire, 11.
Burrell is a huge sports fan and a frequent spectator at Collegiate and UR athletic events. In fact, she’s been known to stop by Pitt Field on the way home from school and catch a few innings of a Spiders’ baseball game.
She’s also been very generous to Collegiate. She’s honored her father with the Clarence B. Williams Award, the annual recipient of which is an outstanding Lower School special teacher, and her mother with a contribution to support science endeavors throughout the school.
“I wanted in a very special way to honor my parents,” she said. “We didn’t know until after they died all the people they had helped along the way. It sort of went hand-in-hand…honoring my blood family as well as my school family.”
Burrell’s long tenure at Collegiate and various outside interests beg the question, “Are you ever planning to retire?”
“I just don’t know,” she says with a smile. “My brain isn’t ready to give it up. There’s always something new and different to learn. I feel like I’m growing with the children. “This is just something I really love.”
