terryumphenour@slcas.org Mr. Umphenour has been a teacher at Lutheran Schools more than 35 years. He earned his Master’s Degree in elementary administration from the University of Missouri and is a recipient of Emerson Electric’s Teacher of the Year Award in 1986, the CitiBank Teacher of Distinction Award in 1987 and Luther Church – Missouri Synod Teacher of the year in 2015. Mr. Umphenour loves to write, read, scuba dive, and mountain climb during his spare time and is the author of four novels. He especially loves teaching science to middle school students because science allows unique opportunities for students to directly interact with biological and physical concepts and forces that run the world. Students grow in knowledge and skills through a mixture of textual content and hands-on-applications (STEAM experiments) that introduce students to organized procedures for investigating the mysteries of life and the physical forces that bind the Earth and universe. His favorite bible verse is Romans 6:23, “ For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus, our Lord.”