"Chemistry is part of everything that we do, and when students come to understand that, then they see science as both less daunting and more interesting."
About Her Life
Barbara Pressey Sitzman (born 1938) fell in love with chemistry in high school, thanks to a good chemistry teacher and the fact that she liked learning by doing hands-on experiments. She never was much for listening and memorizing, a trait that would later shape her approach to teaching. She graduated from San Diego State University with a double major in zoology and chemistry. She started taking substitute teaching jobs when her cousin, who worked at a high school, told her the school needed subs. She loved it so much that she decided to teach full-time. During the course of her teaching career, she took two masters degrees at Whittier College, both in professional education.
In the classroom, Sitzman uses the laboratory to let students discover things for themselves. For example, she teaches acid-base chemistry by challenging the students to design their own tests to investigate the acid-base behavior of antacids, so they can determine for themselves which product works the best.
Sitzman’s love of teaching has taken her around the world. She taught chemistry in the Cook Islands in the Pacific Ocean—a real challenge in a remote, underdeveloped setting where lab equipment was nonexistent. She also spent six years teaching English as a second language in Spain.
For her accomplishments, Sitzman was awarded the 2001 James Bryant Conant Award by the American Chemical Society in recognition of outstanding teaching of high school chemistry. In addition to teaching, she is married with six children and enjoys mountain climbing and adventure travel in her free time.
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