Michael Duseau – SCIENCE DEPARTMENT, 2004-2021

Michael joined the Science Department in 2004, back when it was in the current Arts and Media Center. He has taught primarily the class Conceptual Physics, which most new-to- Milton sophomores and juniors take. It is no exaggeration to say that he has taught just about all the incoming students who are not freshmen.

I was always happy when I had a chance to teach one of  Michael’s former students, for I knew they would have a strong foundation upon which I could build. Bob Tyler echoes this sentiment: “His students knew how to think, how to process data, and how to do science.”

He taught students how to write clearly, to say something only if they could support it with experimental evidence, and to think before speaking. In his classroom are many such quotations for Michael. “Science is about attention to details,” “Being proactive is better than reactive,” and “Be complete but concise.” His former students spoke of him with reverence. He was hard, yes, but fair. He made sure you knew what you were talking about and not just enough to slide by. He also put high stock in being prompt, and his door was often closed once class began. His classroom had clear boundaries and expectations that allow his students to thrive. Michael challenged his students to reach higher, and supported them whenever they needed help.

I had the opportunity to teach one of his classes when he was on sabbatical, and it could not have been easier. He was so organized and well-pre- pared: quizzes, tests, and labs already written before the semester started, a Schoology folder for each discrete unit and for every student. He knew exactly what he wanted each student to know by the end of each class period and several ways for students to reach that understanding.

He showed his students how to do science through his own example. Instead of learning things from a book, he insisted that they learn through experimentally verifying hypotheses. In each of his classes, one of the first experiments done was to determine the acceleration due to gravity when things fall on Earth. He used this exercise to talk about precision and accuracy, how to take data and replicate tests. Whatever value the class found was the value they used for the rest of the year. It did not matter that the text or website said g=9.81 m/s^2. If the class found g=9.91 m/s^2 then it was 9.91 m/s^2.

He was also a great re- source for his colleagues. When you needed a demonstration or some equipment that you just could not find, you asked Mike. His cabinets were well stocked and organized. He was generous with his “toys”—as long as you returned them promptly and in good condition. In our

weekly physics teachers’ meetings, Mike was a calm voice of reason, always bringing the conversation back to the students: “What do we want them to get out of this” exercise, lecture, demonstration? Whenever I needed a reality check, someone to bounce ideas off of, Mike was the go-to person.

This is not to say that Mike did not have his lighter side. Every Halloween, he dressed as Isaac Newton complete

with powdered wig and ruffles. To help students understand motion as a constant velocity, he put on his rollerblades and coasted down the hall.

Mike’s classroom extended beyond Pritzker. In his time at Milton, he coached soccer and tennis for many years, tirelessly helping his players improve their skills. He was able to combine his love of sports and physics by designing his popular mini-unit on “the physics of sports” to end the year in the freshman class.

Mike’s contribution to the Milton Science Department and Physics curricula are wide and varied. His dedication to his craft serves as an example to us all, and his presence will be sorely missed next year and in the years to come.

—JIM KERNOHAN