This year, Hollis Brookline High School has obtained a new teacher in the Science Department. Nicholas Houseman has been welcomed to the HBHS staff, taking on many of the science classes, one of which is biology. 

Houseman graduated from the University of Rhode Island with a Marine Biology major. His background in science has helped students connect their lessons to real world work where he brings his knowledge of biology to class every day. 

Houseman has enjoyed teaching since his arrival. He said that his favorite part of teaching is “when students have that kind of light bulb moment they really get what you are saying it could be something that five minutes ago that person would have no idea what you are talking about at all, and then you explain it, and all of the sudden they get it, and that’s really really awesome.” 

Houseman has created this “light bulb” moment for many of his students. “Mr. Houseman has helped me better understand the nitrogen cycle. I was out for a day and just wanted a little more clarification on it. He sat down with me and took time to explain the whole thing over to me again and all the things I missed,” said one of his students, Paige Knudsen ‘22.

 Mr. Houseman “is very engaging and he is clearly very passionate about biology, especially ecology,” said Aliya Lewis ‘22. 

“I do feel like his background is beneficial to teaching us students. The background knowledge he has really helps us when he is teaching because if you have questions most of the time he can explain it in a different way that may help some people,” said Knudsen.

Houseman has enjoyed his time so far at Hollis Brookline. He said, “So far it’s been a really good experience. It’s a lot of work and there’s a lot about teaching that I’m still learning.” His students enjoy his class as well. Knudsen continued, “I like that Houseman does many different activities to try and get the whole class engaged in what we are learning. By doing this, it keeps the whole class learning in a fun way that won’t make you fall asleep.” 

“He is a really fun teacher who knows what he’s talking about,” said Lewis.

While Houseman is adapting well to this new job, teaching was not what Houseman saw himself doing at this point in time. “This was not was not what I was expecting to do right out of college. I thought that I would be working in a lab or doing field work for either a private company or a university for research.” 

HB is lucky that Houseman decided to go into teaching. He is a very fun, engaging, and energetic teacher that brings cool stories of past science endeavors to class every day.