For many years, we would make biodiesel in class to demonstrate biodiesel chemistry and alternative fuels. There are a lot of organizations in Seattle, like Climate Solutions and Seattle Tilth, that are super amazing and do projects with kids or I could take to their spots for field trips.

Green: How has teaching biology and oceanography changed for you since you started teaching?

Gundle: In a couple of different ways. We know a lot more about genetic technology and climate change now than we used to. Climate change wasn't something that I was keyed into when I was a student in high school, or even in college. We talked about environmental issues all the time, but it wasn't something that was front and center. It really is an important issue to be learning about now.

The educational world has changed a lot, too. The influence of various foundations and organizations that aren’t necessarily, in my opinion, in the interest of students or schools has greatly increased. Community response to them has increased as well, to try to preserve individual learning and creative learning as opposed to lots and lots of standardized tests.

Green: Tell me more about that community reaction.

Gundle: In New York, they have a huge opt-out movement and a lot of parents are choosing to not have their kids take standardized tests because they understand the negative effect it has on their learning and, quite honestly, their mental health. In Seattle, we have a number of organizations that have put on numerous forums to try to promote funding for education and oppose some of the testing regimes. We successfully organized to get standardized testing out of our teaching evaluations in Seattle.

Green: Have you seen, based on that activism, any difference in the engagement of your students?

Gundle: The awareness of teachers has changed, but students don't really have institutional memory because they're new all the time. They don't really know what it was like five or 10 years ago. I don't teach language arts or math—which are the main subjects students get the standardized testing, and testing isn't as intense here as it is in a lot of places in the country. We have some allies in our state legislature, and we’ve successfully fought to make those things less intense. Basically, my career started when all the standardized testing started.

Green: That’s interesting that your career has evolved in alignment with these changes.

Gundle: I think the main problem you have in education is the people making the policy aren't people that understand education and know what happens day-to-day in the classroom. We've tried to invite legislators to come to our classrooms. The legislators in Seattle are pretty great, but on the state level, not necessarily. At the national level, definitely not.

Green: Does the interference of legislators or other companies put any limitations on the way that you teach or do your job?