Here is a an earlier profile from a Richmond Magazine article on standout teachers:
Although Ram Bhagat’s students don’t always relish their time in his demanding science classes, the Open High School teacher says “99 percent” of them like him after the classes are over. In his large classroom lined with windows, Bhagat teaches chemistry and AP environmental science.
Open High, part of the Richmond Public Schools system, has always taken an expansive approach to education, allowing students to follow their interests and learn subjects in creative ways. So, when Bhagat’s students study how water molecules behave, they may invent a dance or go to the James River. A teacher for 27 years, Bhagat is a Virginia State University graduate who grew up in New Haven, Conn. In college, Bhagat says, he became engaged in learning, particularly about microbiology, his major. The teachers there were “very inspirational by the way that they taught and cared.”