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 dresses up for his classes – and not always in a button-up shirt. The professor of optometry at the ��������­–St. Louis puts on Halloween masks to teach crucial lessons in filmed-at-home skits, later to be aired in his classroom.

“I’m a regular at the local costume shop in St. Charles,” Bennett joked.

Sometimes he’s  teaching about neutralizing an eye’s optical power. And sometimes he’s Mr. Hall O. Ween himself, a crook on trial for selling illegal contact lenses that result in corneal scarring.

“It’s all in the name of education,” said Bennett, who specializes in contact lens research. “I’ve found that when the students are having fun, they’re learning and remembering more.”

His unique teaching style has earned him the 2015  from the .

“I was very excited to be a recipient of this honor,” Bennett said. “The American Academy of Optometry means everything to me. It’s an organization whose mission is really lifelong learning for optometry.”

Bennett also knows the award’s namesake and said that he owes much of his inspired teaching to him.