My experience this summer was pleasantly unexpected adventure.  I had no idea what the Kenan Fellowship was or what to expect from the program. A colleague forwarded the information to me and told me this would be good to consider.  I have not experienced a program that has served both as an inspiration and motivation simultaneously since becoming an educator.

I found out that in the Kenan Fellows Program there were specific programs within the group. I was with Students Discover, a group of 12 teachers participating in research amongst 4 programs.  All of us were assigned to work in the labs in the Museum of Life Sciences in Raleigh. How cool is that!?

Team Mites is the group I was a part of and Dr. Dan Fergus was our post doc.  My fellow Teacher-Scientists were Maribeth Evans and Kayla Norville. We got to experience real science in the laboratory and write curriculum for our subject areas to apply what we did to the classrooms we teach in.  The two things that really stood out for me being in our program was realizing that we were part of a research study that had not really been investigated to this degree and we were looked at as professionals.

In my opinion, I think it is rare for science teachers to have the opportunity to show the students they teach true Scientific Inquiry.  Usually we recreate labs that have been done in the past to support the concepts we teach.  There is a beginning and a defined outcome that should happen at the end of the lab.  We teach students that inquiry allows scientists to ask a question, make a hypothesis and then set out to prove or disprove what they think will happen. In this experience, our students will be able to experience the unknown with us. See how scientists react to the scientific process in real time and it benefits the scientific community and how we see and understand the world around us.

The other significant event came in the form of a question. How do we teach this in the classroom?  These scientists were looking to us to help them translate this research to the classroom. This has never happen to me before in this way.  The profession that I am part of was being looked legitimately.  The Kenan Fellows Program has created way to bridge the research experience to the classroom through us.  So now I can inspire my students not just with words but a tangible research experience that they can interact with.

The experience I had this summer has changed my perspective for the better of how I see science and education. I am very grateful to have had this experience, grateful for the relationships I have made, and grateful to be a Kenan Fellow.  Mites for life!….on everybody…for real;)

GO TEAM MITES!!!