Award winning science teacher ‘Doc’ Mayhan helps students believe and achieve
Louis Pasteur, 19th-century father of microbiology and immunology, maintained that “a little science distances you from God, but a lot of science brings you nearer to him.”
Collin Mayhan Ph.D. is inclined to agree.
“I’ve had students talk about how their prayer life really increased while they were taking chemistry, because they struggled with the content and felt like ‘I wasn’t good enough,’” said Dr. Mayhan, chemistry, physics and independent research teacher at Helias Catholic High School in Jefferson City.
He was honored this past fall with the American Chemical Society’s (ACS) Division of Chemical Education Midwest Award for Excellence in High School Teaching.
Dr. Mayhan, whom the students call “Doc,” noted that his chemistry class is one of the first courses where many of the students face serious academic adversity.
“It could be the nature of the content,” he said. “You’re combining a lot of skill sets at the same time. A lot of it is sitting and thinking and imagining. But it’s also applying calculations and trying to make science make math-sense.”
He steadily encourages his students to keep praying and persevering on to that “eureka” moment when the light finally goes on.
“You see a lot of them get really discouraged at the beginning of the year,” he said. “But by the end of the semester and definitely by the end of the year, the growth they show, it’s phenomenal.
“You wouldn’t believe what some of these kids are walking out with in terms of their personal growth — academic and spiritual growth,” he said.
He places the credit at the feet of his students, with whom he considers it a privilege to spend time.
“I’m the conduit, the delivery mechanism,” he insisted. “They’re the ones who are pushing themselves to expand their academic horizons. All the credit goes to them.”
The beat goes on
Dr. Mayhan accepted the award in October, during the ACS’s Midwest regional meeting in Columbia.
The award, presented each year in Memory of John E. Bauman Jr., is “designed to recognize, encourage, and stimulate outstanding teachers of high school chemistry in the 10 Regions of the American Chemical Society,” according to the ACS website.
Dr. Mayhan, who is a member of Cathedral of St. Joseph Parish in Jefferson City, has been part of the Helias Catholic faculty since 2014.
He currently teaches general Chemistry I, Chemistry II, Physics, and an Independent Research class.
“I think he’s one of the strongest teachers at Helias Catholic when it comes to academic rigor and preparing kids for college,” said Father Stephen Jones, pastor of the Cathedral Parish, who while previously serving as president of Helias Catholic had a hand in hiring Dr. Mayhan.
“And he’s also a faithful guy,” the priest noted, “so he combines the best of both worlds.”
Dr. Mayhan grew up in Jefferson City and studied at the University of Missouri in Columbia — beginning as a music education major.
“I’ve been giving drum lessons to people since I was in high school,” he noted.
He changed majors several times before settling on chemistry, completing a bachelor’s degree in 2009 and a doctorate (Ph.D.) in 2014.
Many of his professors at Mizzou, including Carol Deakyne Ph.D., advisor for his doctorate, influenced his outlook on teaching.
“There are probably four of them that I just shamelessly stole my favorite features of their lecture style and try to mimic it every day,” he said.
While pursuing his degrees, he served for five years as a teaching assistant at Mizzou, “which was a super-valuable teaching experience,” he said.
He watched how seemingly effortlessly Dr. Deakyne, his mentor, made chemistry make sense.
“Her lectures were beautiful,” he recalled. “Her review sessions — you’d go sit there and for an hour or two, you feel like, ‘I must be the smartest person in the world! It all makes sense and it flows beautifully.’”
His instructors’ secret was to weave a narrative that everyone could relate to.
“They’d take a lecture and turn things like thermodynamics and kinetics into a story that ties it all together,” Dr. Mayhan recalled. “You can’t ask for anything more.”
He sees physics and chemistry as nothing more than “trying to understand the fundamentals of the physical world around us.”
Once students understand some of the basics of physics, they can’t help but apply it to even their most mundane everyday experiences.
“The way I see it, math is the language of physics,” said Dr. Mayhan. “Physics governs what goes on in chemistry. Chemistry is what makes biology go.”
“Out there sweating”
Dr. Mayhan figured he’d end up teaching, but Helias Catholic was a surprise.
“When I took the interview, I think I was just looking for practice interviewing,” he recalled. “I don’t know what I was expecting. But as I’m sure you know, Fr. Jones is a very persuasive guy.”
Since then, Dr. Mayhan has seen his purpose at Helias Catholic as “helping to provide an outstanding education.”
“And it’s not so much about chemistry,” he pointed out. “I’m actually teaching problem-solving with a chemistry twist. There are multiple ways to solve a problem, not just one way.”
It’s less about memorizing facts than putting them into practice.
“We need to be learning how to APPLY our knowledge,” he said.
He encourages his students to take risks and try things that are difficult.
“As a chemist, I hope they learn some chemistry,” he said. “But at the end of the day, that doesn’t matter as much as whether we gave them some better life skills.”
Dr. Deakyne and another former colleague contacted Dr. Mayhan in 2018 about finishing some calculations with his students for some research at the university. That collaboration steadily grew.
In 2022, Dr. Mayhan pitched the idea of offering a research class for exceptional students. He got the go-ahead and added it to his schedule that year.
“In Independent Research, we’re doing research that’s comparable to advanced undergrad in college,” he noted. “But my students are not undergrad. They have limited skills. We want to expose them to the research community and what the research looks like.”
Since the class began, 14 students have collaborated with faculty members of the University of Missouri and the University of Cincinnati College of Pharmacy.
Six of his students have presented at National ACS meetings. All are now pursuing majors in science, technology, engineering or mathematics (STEM) at universities across the country.
Three — Karole Klebba, Claire Cassmeyer and Emily Rodriguez — are co-authors of several peer-reviewed articles in scientific journals.
Some of his students have no idea what they’re getting into when they sign up for his class.
Initial roadblocks take a toll on their self-esteem, at which point he’s quick to interject: “Just because you didn’t understand a question I asked, it doesn’t mean you don’t understand, let alone that you’re not good enough.”
One of his professors, Thomas Sewell Ph.D., convinced him that anyone who has a desire to understand chemistry can work their way through it.
“Whatever you may lack in natural aptitude, you can make up for with your hard work if you’re willing to do that,” Dr. Mayhan insisted.
He likened it to how athletes are “out there sweating” while training for competition.
“If you’re stuck on a problem, that’s academic sweating,” he said. “No one likes the struggle, but it does build character.
“As a dad,” he stated, “I don’t want my kids to have to struggle. But at the same time,
I want them to have the tenacity that ‘I’m going to pull myself up and go at it again.’”
Big questions
Studying at Mizzou brought Dr. Mayhan into contact with Erin, who is now his wife.
He started going to Mass with her and eventually decided to inquire about becoming Catholic.
“I wanted to see what the Church had to say about things, and I also wanted to be united with my wife and have a good foundation for my kids,” he recalled.
Monsignor Gregory L. Higley, whose sister happened to have been a bridesmaid in Dr. Mayhan’s mother’s wedding, was pastor at St. Andrew Parish in Holts Summit when Dr. Mayhan entered the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults.
Understanding how hard it can be to accept the entire trove of Catholic doctrine without question, Msgr. Higley and Deacon Dan Ramsey appealed to Dr. Mayhan’s inquisitive nature.
“They said don’t dismiss everything, but don’t just follow blindly,” he recalled. “They said to make sure to come to terms with it in a way that I could find acceptable.”
Years after receiving Sacraments of Initiation, Dr. Mayhan still engages in deep spiritual discussions, especially with Fr. Jones and Father Anthony Viviano, pastor of St. Andrew Parish in Tipton and Annunciation Parish in California.
He believes the quest for spiritual enlightenment and for knowledge of how everything in the physical universe fits and works together are fueled by the same desire.
“As soon as you think you understand something, you don’t,” said Dr. Mayhan. “There’s always another question. As soon as you have another answer, it raises another question, which raises another.
“Trying to find an ultimate truth — that’s one of life’s great struggles,” he said. “I do think that in my calling to be a teacher, I’ll always be trying to understand how the physical relates to the spiritual. It will always be a challenge. I guess that’s my cross to bear.”
He believes there’s an upside and a downside to trying to make sense of everything.
“I think at the end of the day, the more I know, the less I know,” he said. “As soon as you understand something, you don’t.”
He wonders what it would be like to “turn off my brain, my curiosity, my wanting to know the fundamental understanding.”
“Because, some things we just won’t understand in this life,” he said. “Being okay with that — that’s what faith is.”
Saints and scholars
The ACS award ceremony was the first time Dr. Mayhan had seen many of his former professors since he was a graduate student over a decade ago.
“It was great!” he said. “They remembered me and treated me more like a peer than as a ‘grunt,’ as they say.”
Yet, he’s not one to rest on past accomplishments.
“I’m always looking at different texts and trying to reinvent the class a little bit,” he said. “It’s never the same from year to year. That’s how you keep from getting bored with it.”
For himself and his colleagues, Dr. Mayhan asks for prayers for patience, perspective and balance.
“We all have a calling,” he said. “It’s also a job — that profession versus natural calling.”
Each makes countless decisions throughout the 182-day school year.
“And you’re ‘on’ all the time,” he noted. “You’re not allowed to have a bad day and lock the door and stay in your office. You can’t take it out on your students. You have to suck it up and put on a show, which can be exhausting some days.
“So, that’s the big question,” he said. “How are you able to approach everything with peace and perspective and not get too high on the highs or too low on the lows and do what’s best for everyone?”
He’s convinced that if anyone deserves professional recognition, it’s teachers for “pre-k through second ... maybe even third through fifth.”
“They are saints!” he said. “I don’t know how they do it. They have a lot harder job than what I do.”
