I’ve come to the end of my first week as part of the Kenan Fellows Students Discover Team at the North Carolina Science Museum. If I had only one word to describe my experience it would be MAGNIFICENT. Someone in our group summed up the experience as if they’d died and gone to science teacher’s heaven and I couldn’t agree more.

Day 1 – June 30, 2014
We began our week at Prairie Ridge Ecostation and met with our teams of mentors and fellows. Liz Baird, director of education programs at the museum, facilitated a conversation with the group as we shared our hopes, fears and expectations about the journey we were getting ready to take together. It was a great time of sharing and listening as we discussed openly our thoughts about the Students Discover Project.

Next we met with Chris Godforth, Prairie Ridge director, who guided us as we participated in the Citizen Science Dragonfly Swarm Project. We had fun observing dragonflys and collecting data to contribute to this project. We worked up an appetite observing dragonflys and were ready to enjoy a catered lunch by Neomande.

After lunch we drove to the museum and upon arrival I was immediately made to feel welcome in my home for the next three weeks. Liz Baird gave us a tour of the museum and each Students Discover Team was introduced to their lab. My team, nicknamed Team Dirt, is working in the Genomics and Microbiology Lab on Exploring the Dandelion Microbiome with Dr. Julia Stevens.

Our day ended with a Daily Planet talk by Dr. Rob Dunn who explained the entire Citizen Science project and shared his vision for how this project could scale throughout the state, country and even the world. I left my first day at the museum so excited to be a part of this project and couldn’t wait to return the next day!

Day 2 – July 1, 2014
Our day began with our mentor Dr. Juila Stevens and Dan Fergus, mentor of the face mites project. We met in the conference room and learned about the molecular methods used in extracting DNA, and PCR(Polymerase Chain Reaction). A bit of a brain strain as we reviewed cell structure and learned procedures for extracting DNA and PCR reaction involving temperature cycles, primers, nucleotides, and gel electrophoresis. We then got to go back to the Genomics and Microbiology Lab and do some science – yay! Our team learned how to create and plate nutrient agar in preparation for our first soil samples that we collected around the museum block.

At the end of the day, we enjoyed a Daily Planet talk from Dr. Bucky Gates and then toured the Palentology Lab and learned more about his Citizen Science Fossil Project.

Day 3 – July 2, 2014
We began this day with another tutoring session from our mentors Julia and Dan and learned lots about DNA sequencing. Next, my mentor, Dr. Julia Stevens gave a Daily Planet talk on Exploring the Dandelion Microbiome. I was interested to hear more about her project and what my team would be working on in the coming weeks.

Roland Kays, the director of the Biodiversity Lab hosted a round table talk with all the Student Discover Kenan Fellows and his student interns. The topic was How to Reach Middle School Kids. They were very interested in tapping into our expertise in the classroom about what is working with students at this age level. It was fun to be the experts in this conversation and share knowledge from the classroom with the museum. Topics around the table included flipping the classroom, use of technology tools, and limited time with lecture.
The highlight of the day was a visit from NPR’s Frank Stasio who recorded his program The State of Things about the Students Discover Program at the NC Science Musuem. Amy Lawson, one of my teammates on Team Dirt, was interviewed along with Dr. Rob Dunn, and Dr. Julie Urban. Amy did a fabulous job discussing how this Citizen Science initiative with the Students Discover team can positively impact the middle school science classroom.

We ended our day by preparing the soil samples by adding soil to the Phosphate Buffered Solution (PBS), centrifuge the mixture, pipette the solution with bacteria cells on to the agar plates, and incubate the bacteria. It will be interesting to see what is growing!
The museum was buzzing with activity today!

Day 4 – July 3, 2014
To begin our day, Team Dirt was invited to sit in on a job talk given by Danielle N. Lee who was completing the interview process for Assisstant Director of the Biodiversity Lab. It was very interesting to participate in this phase of the interview process.
Team Dirt was then put to the task to create more nutrient agar this time on our own. We successfully plated and labeled the agar.
Liz Baird, director of education at the museum, invited all of the Kenan Fellows working on the Students Discover projects to eat lunch together and reflect on our week. During this conversation it became so apparent to me that I am part of something great … I feel we are on the cusp of changing the face of science in the middle school classroom and I simply can’t wait for week two at the museum!

Wow!  I had an amazing week in Cullowhee, NC at the Kenan Fellows Professional Advancement Institute.  In my 25 years of teaching, I have not experienced such top quality professional development as I did this past week.

Arriving back home exhausted from the week’s activities, I began reflecting on my week and the many new tools, strategies, and ideas that were presented at the institute.  I attended so many excellent sessions on technology that will engage my students and improve my instructional practices. However,  the session that most inspired me as a middle school science teacher was Justin Osterstrom’s presentation on Engineering in the Middle School Classroom.  His hands-on, minds-on approach was right on.  I cannot wait to implement some of the practical activities he shared in my own classroom.  I could have spent two hours in a session with him learning more strategies for creating lessons that will improve  my students’ inquiry skills.   I plan to post the following quote from Justin in my classroom as a constant reminder to my students :  “I expect you to fail, I don’t expect you to quit.”  THIS is the point where those AHA moments occur and real learning begins.  The type of activities that Justin presented are the ones that create excitement in the classroom and leave the students begging for more.  I left that session inspired and eager to create more opportunities for inquiry learning in my classroom.

I was surrounded by amazing educators from across the state this week.   The conversations and team building experiences I had walking around the track, sharing a meal, or rafting down the Nantahala were just as important and meaningful to me as the professional development sessions I attended.

I am honored to be a part of this group of exceptional educators and energized by the creativity, skills, and passion that was shared throughout the week.  I  also really enjoyed learning from my fellow educators during the Kenan Talks. I look forward to meeting together  with this group again in July and continuing my journey as a Kenan Fellow.

I decided to apply for the Kenan Fellowship Program this year when I heard there were going to be fellowships at the North Carolina Science Museum.  I’ve had many great experiences with the science museum  both professionally and personally from student field trips to exploring the jungles of Belize with the Educators of Excellence Program .  Kenan Fellows have such an excellent reputation throughout the state so I couldn’t dream of a better partnership to help me grow as educator.

My excitement grew when I met my mentor , Dr. Julia Stevens, at the science museum on June 5th and learned more about our research project exploring soil microbiomes.  It was apparent to me that my summer  work in the Microbiology and Genomics Lab was going to be awesome!

I’m now at NCCAT in Cullowhee, NC participating in the Kenan Fellows Professional Advancement Institute.  WOW!  In just two days I’ve made  great connections with outstanding educators and experienced professional development unlike any I’ve had in my teaching career.  This program has already exceeded my expectations!

As I begin this journey as a Kenan Fellow, my hope is to improve my skill set as an educator. I want to  learn new strategies and tools that I can share with my students and colleagues that will engage the learner and rejuvenate the educator.

I’m very excited to be part of the citizen science intiative at the museum and take what we are doing in the classroom back out into the real world.   I hope to create lessons that can be used by teachers anywhere that will engage their students in participating in citizen science.  I want the students to be excited that the data being collected in classroom is not going to die in the notebook at the end of the year, but become part of the collective science.  We are going to KICK IT UP A NOTCH in the science classroom this year!

The countdown is on and I’m so excited to begin my experience as a Kenan Fellow.  I’m definitely a beginning blogger and will enjoy learning from my cohorts in the program.  Looking forward to meeting everyone at NCCAT in a couple of weeks!