As I walked into Honors Biology, the room tucked away in the corner of South Campus, I immediately knew what I was in for. The lab tables in back were covered in whatever we would be studying that day, which meant it could be from potatoes to animals in jars. I would pick up a worksheet on the table as I walked to my seat and I remember that Mr. Mechenich would greet me with: “Hello, Drew!” and “You ready for some science today?!” and “How’d you do in the meet last weekend?” I remember he was always interested in how I was doing in cross country or track no matter if it was good or bad which made me feel like he cared about his students and not just their grades.
Mr. Mechenich would then stand up and shout instructions to the class, his loud voice thundering to the back of the classroom where I sat. Unlike some teachers who would either just give you the answer or not provide any help at all, Mr. Mechenich would  explain any instruction or problem as many times as we needed until we understood it.
I remember a broken lab where we tried to use PBestLuc (a specific kind of plasmid) to make a type of bacteria glow. The class was discussing why the experiment didn’t work for anyone. I said a horrible pun along the lines of, “PBestLuc didn’t seem to give us any luck!” with a incredibly sarcastic look on my face. Most of the class groaned or yelled at me, (I didn’t blame them, it was really bad) but Mr. Mechenich just looked at me for a few moments then smiled. After that, he would try at least once in a class period to slide some humor or another horrible pun into the lesson. When the class started to groan or complain about his humor, he would just smile, he knew he had succeeded. Sometimes he’d say something that was set up to be a pun, but somebody just had to say it. At that point he’d usually look to me, and I would give it my best shot to finish it. It was a little embarrassing, but it also made me feel like I had a role in the class besides just being a student. There was even one time where I think my humor helped improve my grade! I was presenting on the Leaf Cutter Ant and I was describing its camouflage. In the next slide I had a picture of just the jungle floor with no ants and I said, “Can anyone see any ants?” Some students in the class said no, others shook their heads. And then I said, “Well, that’s because there aren’t any.” Most of the students laughed and so did Mr. Mechenich. I got an A on the presentation even though I went over the time limit with a note in the corner of the paper saying, “I like your sense of humor! :)”
Mr. Mechenich was the type of teacher that was motivating, interesting, and understanding. I am not the type of person that likes to work, but he was able to motivate me to do so and many other kids to do so with the many way he taught.