Published: January 1, 1994

Sweet Inspiration

Richard Plass of Stuyvesant High School in Manhattan has never done research more sophisticated than raising guppies with his sons. Yet he has turned out 202 semifinalists in the prestigious Westinghouse Science Talent Search, nurturing more successful research projects than probably any other teacher in the United States.

It is not a mastery of biology that accounts for this extraordinary record. Even his comments on papers that are being readied for the Westinghouse betray a lack of any exceptional expertise. "Go, go, go,'' says the spidery scrawl on the title page of one paper. "I couldn't find anything to critique,'' says another.

"The kids in Stuyvesant are beyond me,'' he confessed. "I'm a biology...