Chris Asquith has been an AP Biology teacher at Western for the last four years, but he’s had a love for biology for far longer than that.
“I’ve always loved animals,” Asquith said. “If you had asked five-year-old Mr. Asquith, ‘What do you want to be when you grow up?’ he would have probably said a zookeeper.”
Asquith’s journey with biology started long before he went to college: “I grew up in the Smoky Mountains and I loved going through creeks, and flipping over rocks, and going to ponds, and looking for frogs and salamanders and snakes,” he said.
So, when the time came, Asquith had no doubts about his college major. “When I finished high school,” he said. “I knew that I wanted to major in biology because I wanted to do something with animals.”
After finishing his four year undergraduate degree in biology, Asquith was unsure whether to become a teacher or go the research route: “I came from a family of teachers. My mom was a high school English teacher and my dad was a history teacher before he was a principal, but I thought I also might want to do research.”
Asquith decided to get his Masters in Biology at VCU. This let him do research while getting his masters and get a feel for teaching as a graduate assistant teaching labs: “I was teaching the labs while I was also taking my classes and doing my research. And what I found at the end of all this process was that I did enjoy doing the research,” Asquith said.
Asquith’s research led him to spend a summer in Panama studying Redeye Tree Frogs: “When I was in Panama…I was interested in knowing when a tadpole is growing and wants to turn into a full grown frog, what are the things that make that happen in a short time or in a long time,” Asquith said.
To reach a conclusion, Asquith gathered frog eggs from the leaves of the trees and put them into groups, each group with different variables that could affect the rate at which the tadpoles turned into frogs: “But the more interesting thing I found was that we used these baby dragonflies, which were the predator that could eat the tadpoles,“ he said. “And if a dragonfly was in the tank with the tadpole, the tadpoles knew it, and no matter how much food you gave them, they would hide all day, every day, until the predator went away. And so it turns out whether or not a predator is hanging around nearby is more important than how much food you have if you’re a tadpole and you’re wondering how fast it’s going to turn into a frog.”
After his summer in Panama, Asquith made the decision to pursue teaching: “I enjoyed the teaching aspect more than I enjoyed the researching aspect. So after I finished my master’s degree, I started community college teaching,” he said. In addition to teaching high school, Asquith has been teaching at a community college in Alaska for the last 15 years: “This is my 15th year, and every spring I teach a class that’s all about the animals and plants in Alaska,” he said.
Asquith hopes that his students learn things in his class that will help them understand the world as a whole both now and as adults. He said, “I ask myself if I could pick what students remember about biology, what is the most important thing? I want you to know enough biology so that one, you understand why the environment is important. And two, you’re able to talk to your doctor about your health and how your body works. And three, you’re able to understand how to make important decisions like when to vaccinate your kids.”
Even though Asquith is a full time teacher, he still makes room for his research. He often volunteers for an organization called the Virginia Master Naturalists: “I do things like, I listen to frogs that are calling in my neighborhood and put that information into a database that other researchers can use, and so they know which frogs are calling and from which sites,” he said. “I like to give lectures to different groups in the area. And I also like to lead nature walks throughout the spring and summer.” Other organizations Asquith volunteers for on occasion are The Nature Conservancy, The Botanical Gardens of the Piedmont in Charlottesville, and he also does nature programming at Triple C Camp in the summer.
Asquith uses his knowledge of biology to help teach his students and community about themselves and the world around them.
