December 2004

Profiles of Success

Elaine C. Daughetee Wolfe is a teacher of 7th grade science at Guion Creek Middle School in Indianapolis, Indiana. She graduated from Purdue in 1962 with a B.S. in Biological Sciences, and she has many memories of her life as a student. “My memories include wading across campus in the snow and nearly getting frostbitten knees, since in those days women weren’t allowed to wear slacks on campus,” she says. “In addition to spending long hours in Lilly Hall, I was involved in theater productions, Angel Flight, Delta Rho Kappa, and Kappa Delta Pi.”

Elaine chose a General Science major with a Comprehensive Area in Biological Sciences. “I knew I was going to be a teacher, so I wanted to take as many courses as I could to give myself a broad knowledge base,” she says. “The Comprehensive Area did this very well. By going this route, I was able to elect higher and dual-level courses in my junior and senior years that most undergraduates didn’t have the chance to take.”

Elaine worked hard as a Science student, and her memories of the time are good ones. “I remember sneaking into Dr. Benzer’s classroom to cross my fruit flies so I could listen to his graduate class which met in the same room. I remember taking notes on a clipboard over my head while standing in the rain during Dr. Lindsay’s forestry class. And I remember taking an anatomy test with a temperature of 104 degrees and only missing two questions!”

Elaine credits her Purdue education for preparing her not only academically, but also by giving her examples of student-teacher rapport. “My Purdue professors were all, without exception, encouraging, helpful, and very interesting educators with very interesting courses,” Elaine says. “I look back fondly to many discussions before, during, and after class with them. Even in the large lectures of over 400 students, where many students became ‘numbers,’ my professors knew who I was because I worked hard and I was not afraid to approach them.”

After receiving her B.S. from Purdue, she earned her M.A. in vertebrate zoology from UCLA and the Ed.D. in school administration and curriculum-instruction from Indiana University. Dr. Wolfe has been a finalist for the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science Teaching, Indiana State Teacher of the Year, and the Indianapolis Monthly’s “Best Teachers in Indianapolis” poll. She was a semi-finalist for the Shell Science Teaching Award and shortly before that won an area Golden Apple Award. She has been listed in “Who’s Who Among American Women” since 1999, and this year was chosen for inclusion in “Great Women of the 21st Century.” In 1998, the School of Science honored her with the Distinguished Alumna Award for Excellence in K-12 Education. She was the 2004 winner of the National Association of Biology Teachers Outstanding Biology Teacher Award for Indiana.

Elaine has taught biology for 31 years at the middle school, high school, and college levels, and is a strong advocate of teaching each science discipline comprehensively and separately to middle school students. “I like the consistency of having 6th graders take earth science, 7th graders take life science, and 8th graders take physical science,” she says. “Having taught all these sciences, I know that children need comprehensive doses of each science, separately, to get a feel for the discipline and its ramifications.” She feels that new trends toward teaching science in an interdisciplinary way are detrimental to children’s education. “With interdisciplinary, or fragmented teaching, the students don’t comprehend the overall vastness of science,” she says. “Children don’t learn how to learn, and many of them get turned off to science. We need to teach science in the best way possible so that our students become scientifically literate citizens.”

Elaine’s teaching career has been a mission to bring understanding to young people about the beauty, the intricacies, and the importance of science. “The excellent science education I received at Purdue prepared me for my mission,” she says. “Thanks Purdue!”

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