Ms. Noel: Scientist and Dinosaur Lover

Today, Ms. Noel is known throughout JCHS as a teacher who makes science tutorials in song, is optimistic even in the worst of times, and sees the best in everyone. But how did Ms. Noel come to be the science teacher we all know and love?

Ms. Noel grew up in Austin, Texas and her parents made sure she, in her words, “played outside a lot and read a lot of books”, which first kindled her love for science. When she grew up, she became a lab scientist, but she always knew that she really only wanted to spread her passion towards science to the next generation. She was able to do this a bit as a mentor in her lab, but she finally decided to become a full-time teacher after one specifically scarring experience involving a lab rat.

In order to use the rats as scientific specimens in their research, her lab didn’t drug the animals at all and used what she describes as “basically, what looks like a French-revolution-style guillotine” to decapitate the rodents. One horrible day, one of the rats seemed to realize what was going on and pushed back against the blade was coming down. Ms. Noel describes the following events as such: “Instead of chopping his head off and killing him right away, [the blade] chopped his face off, and the rat was trying to look around, and he didn’t have a face, and it was just horrible, and there was blood, and the person working with me passed out, and so, I had to step up and try to kill the rat again … and it worked that time, but it was just a horrible, bloody, disgusting experience and I realized that was not what I wanted to spend the rest of my life doing.” She asked herself what would be more fun, and decided the answer was “Teaching students about dinosaurs. And, like, everything else.” And thus began her teaching career.

Ms. Noel says she has thoroughly enjoyed teaching at JCHS, particularly because of the Jewish community. “The Jewish community,” Ms. Noel says, “has this innate questioning piece. Someone told me ‘Oh, it’s because they study the Talmud.’ Well, I don’t know about that, but I do know that whenever I present some evidence, everyone’s like, ‘Are you sure? Really?’ and they want to know more about it. Or if we do a lab, and they see something strange, they’re like, ‘I want to know more about this.’ And that’s like the scientific piece that I always look for in students, is that curious mind that wants to know more. And I love it so much.” Ms. Noel found this Jewish aspect so compelling that she has chosen to teach at another Jewish school next year, when she, very unfortunately, has to move out of the Bay Area. Ms. Noel says she will very much miss each of her individual students. She hopes that one day she will be able to “come back sometime, when, you know, I have a rich husband or something … Or sell a book! Ooh, maybe I’ll sell a book. Yeah, done. I’ll write a book, I’ll make a million, and I’ll come back and work here.”

Ms. Noel won’t forget JCHS, but she hopes JCHS doesn’t forget her either. Her lasting message, she hopes, is to “never give up on yourself as a science student. The biggest thing I’ve brought [to JCHS] is giving people confidence in knowing they can do science. And so, that’s kind of my goal as a teacher, is making sure everybody knows that there is some part of science that you’ll be really good at, and, yeah, never give up. That’s kinda the big thing.”