Plains science teacher readies for retirement

It's time for one Plains High School science teacher to hang up his Bunsen burner, calorimeters and beakers in search of new horizons.

Carl Benson will have the normal list of chores to do at home. He would like to lend a hand at his parent's ranch in Drummond, and explore new places in Montana with his wife, Denise. He might be leaving the science class, but you can't take the science out of him. There's one thing he's wanted to do for a long time and that's to visit firsthand one of the places he has had in his teaching during his 38 years with Plains High School - a real live volcano eruption in Iceland.

"It's the best place to see a volcano. When we study volcanoes, Iceland is the place to be," said Benson. Volcanoes were one of his passions in the field of science. They studied volcanoes extensively and used geographic information system mapping for their research. They were "too messy" to light on fire in class, though he did it a couple times. "There was ash all over everything; it was a mess," said Benson.

Benson wants to visit Iceland's volcano, Krafla, the second largest in the country and the most well known of the Icelandic volcanic regions, he said. "I would like to go when the volcanoes are erupting. That big one would be the one to see," said Benson. He and his chemistry students conducted a cinder cone volcano demonstration three years ago for a school assembly in the gymnasium, rigging the volcano with ammonium and dichromate to simulate an eruption.

Benson is best known by students and teachers alike for the fun projects he incorporated into his instructions. "I always tried to incorporate labs and activities to my classes to reinforce concepts that we were covering in class," said Benson, 61, who retires at the end of this school year. "I think that in any science course you should incorporate as many activities as you can. Not only does it create interest but it allows for experimentation to help learn," he added. His hands-on activities, such as an egg drop from the gym roof to teach the laws of motion or a rocket launch at the school discus pad to teach the concepts of momentum and energy, are legendary at the school. The practical exercises reinforced what he taught in class. "One year we injected chickens with growth hormones to analyze the effect on feather growth," said Benson. In one class, they built concrete blocks just to crush them and on another occasion they visited streams to analyze watersheds.

Benson started at Plains High School in 1984 after getting his Bachelor of Science from Western Montana College, now part of the University of Montana, with a degree in secondary education with a broadfield science major and a minor in physical education. He completed his master's degree in wildlife ecology from the UM in 1992.

"I've had the opportunity to try many different activities over the years and I'm very thankful for my administration's willingness to let me try things," he said. One of his special memories is winning the Montana Envirothon competition 15 years ago. He was picked by NASA to fly on the Kuiper airborne observatory and was chosen as one of the top 100 biology teachers in the nation. "I think that most of my special memories are of the students, the excitement of their first plane ride, the accomplishment that they feel in mastering a topic and the collaboration of teacher and students in competitions," said Benson.

Benson graduated from Beaverhead County High School in Dillon in 1978. In high school, his favorite subject was science, but he loved English and sports, too. After college, he applied at Bozeman High School and at a school in Aberdeen, Washington. He was offered positions at both places, but turned them down to work at Plains High School. "Couldn't find any better place than Plains," said Benson. This was Benson's only teaching job. He liked science because it allowed problem solving creativity, he said. "It's really not just a subject but a process that allows you to find answers to the best of your abilities," said Benson.

During his time at Plains, he taught biology, earth science, chemistry, physics, anatomy and physiology, integrated science, environmental science, fire science, advanced science and junior high life science, as well as physical education. Even for the Brain Bash event, an annual fun event put on by the school just before Christmas break, Benson either incorporated a life-sized Operation game or a cork gun shooting gallery that included endangered species the students couldn't shoot.

Benson is a fourth generation Montanan, born and raised on a ranch in Dillon. He and his wife Denise have two sons, Bryce and Cole, and he is a retired volunteer firefighter at Plains-Paradise Rural Fire District. He will mostly miss the connection he's had with the students through the years. "They are the reason that we get into this profession and I'm proud to have worked with the students and parents from Plains," he said. "I'm retiring now because I feel like it's time for another chapter in my life to begin. I want to visit some of those places that I've taught about for years - Iceland."