PSCS PROFILES
Tanya Lasswell
Teaching Staff
Tanya Lasswell has set up a table at the front of the school that she calls “bio-curious.” It holds a wide range of things that are living or once were living, a couple microscopes, petri dishes, and an open textbook. She loves biology, so she often spends part of her day just hanging around the table, engaging with individual students who might walk past and wonder, “What’s that?”
She’s brilliant, and her love of biology is electric. So when a student came in from outside and noticed a hornet flying around, he instinctively knew to tell her about it.
“That’s not a hornet. That’s a butterfly,” she said. This surprised the student, who was pretty sure he knew the difference between a hornet and butterfly.
“Look at the antennae,” she said. “Those are butterfly antennae, not a hornet’s.” She explained to him a concept in nature in which certain animal species gain an evolutionary advantage when, through genetic mutation, they take on the physical appearance of a completely different species. Basically, looking like a hornet scares off enough of its predators to allow this butterfly to thrive.
She grabbed the textbook and showed him some photos of other animals that also mimic the appearance of more fearsome creatures. They engaged in a lively conversation about all kinds of interesting things. Finally the student paused, looked at her, and smiled. Then he said, simply, “That’s cool.”
Tanya thinks so too. She’s always loved learning. In fact, she first began taking classes on a college campus at age 13. Tanya skipped high school and enrolled in the Early Entrance Transition School at the University of Washington. After earning a degree in botany from UW, Tanya went on to complete a master’s degree in biology from Duke University.
In addition to teaching biology to Duke undergraduates, she has since taught science and math to kids on the Eastside, ecology to high school students at a research center in Costa Rica, and SAT prep to kids wanting to go to college. At PSCS, she teaches classes with titles like Biopsychology, Origami, Make My Hair, Fiber Arts, Algebra, and Catering 101.
Teaching and learning is, simply, a central part of her life.
“One of my core values is always learning. When you stop learning, that’s when you die inside. There’s no reason not to turn everything you do into a learning experience.”