Ms. Hanus's First Year by Matthew Trazzera
Mrs. Lia Hanus is a first-year biology teacher at Melbourne High School, where she teaches IB Biology and MYP. After studying marine biology at Florida tech, she realized she wanted to teach. “I wanted to do something in biology that had a social aspect,” Hanus said. Her favorite topics include coral reef ecology and genetics.
Hanus's love for science began at the age of four on a tide pool field trip to Japan with her mom. “I was amazed at how many small details there are and fell in love with it,” she explained. Outside of school, she enjoyed surfing, scuba diving, and reading. She believed biology was important because it relates to day-to-day life and helps us take care of ourselves.”
Teaching at Melbourne was special for Hanus because her brother and mother both were at the school with her. Her mom was an English language learner's teacher (ELL), and her brother was a student. One of her proudest moments came when a parent shared how much their child enjoyed her class because the student was to scared to tell her. “Hopefully, my students walk away learning some biology and realize they are not too young to know what they want to do,” Hanus said.
Caption: Students explore the building blocks of life.: Mrs. Lia Hanus, a new teacher at Melbourne High School helps her students with biology flash cards with great passion in her 4th period class. She started the activity with her students to help them understand the topic of cells more, and help them prepare for upcoming tests. Todd believes that biology should be something that all students should know. “I believe that biology helps us take care of ourselves,” she said.Photo by: Matthew Trazzera