This was my beginning week as a Kenan Fellow with Dr. Jur, in the picture below. I am thoroughly enjoying the learning I am doing and the exposure to all the new technologies and excited for the new opportunities I can create for my students in my classes, clubs and Catalyst Program. Dr. Jur made me feel right at home and is always very helpful in explaining information to us and an answering any questions. This has put me right at ease since I am unfamiliar with many of the technologies we are using. His support makes me feel, I can be successful in learning and teaching these technologies and processes to my students. Every day has been exciting learning new things, and I am enjoying learning again and being a student. It also has helped me understand more how my students “feel” when learning new things they may or may not have background knowledge in. I am also working with a wonderful Kenan Team, Ursela Jones and Esta Lampkin to create our project.
Before I talk more about the Fellowship I will give you some background information about myself and my journey here. I teach at Dillard Drive Middle School. I teach Grades 6,7 and 8 Science and Co Teach Grades 7 and 8 Math. I just completed my fifth year of teaching. I am certified in Special Education Grades K-12, Science Middle School, Science High School and Middle School Language Arts. I teach both students on grade level and those below in both the ICR and Resource setting.
In addition I also organize and run two clubs, Science Explorers, where last year I had 50 students attend weekly, in Grades 6,7 and 8 where a guest Scientist comes from either universities such as; Duke, UNC, Wake Tech and NCSU or industry or government and teaches the students about the STEM Field and we complete hands on activities. This Club works well in exposing students to different STEM content, fields and future careers. I also run in the Spring a Citizen Science Club with the North Carolina Museum of Natural Science where I take 15 students to work on Citizen Science Projects weekly to Prairie Ridge and have the students participate in Citizen Science Projects and learn field research skills.
I am on the National Science Teacher’s Special Education Advisory Board where we work to improve science education for students with disabilities nationally. This year I wrote and received a grant from Biogen Foundation to start a new program at NC Science House called: Catalyst: Creating Opportunities in STEM for Students with Disabilities. This Program consists of a week long summer program and 8 monthly Saturday Sessions during the school year. It was done in partnership with NCSU, Wake Technical College, Triangle 2020, The North Carolina Museum of Natural Science. We just completed our week long session which was a pilot program we hope to expand and continue next summer. We had 10 high school students both in the OCS and Regular Education Setting from 9 High Schools in Wake County and New Bern, NC. The week was a success and students.
I became a Kenan Fellow to improve both my content knowledge, skills, learn about cutting edge research and STEM Careers, so I can better teach and prepare my students for their futures. I was very interested to learn about Wearable Devices, Nanotechnology and it’s applications. I also wanted to learn how to use various sensors and how to code so I can uses these in my classroom. There are so many applications in all the areas I work in daily.
I feel this journey began before school ended when I did a two week unit on Nanotechnology with my students in Grade 6,7 8 Science Classes. We learned what is nanotechnology and about its many applications from Thin Films to Cross Linked Polymers to One World One Health. I think this unit which is on my Blog gave me and my students a platform which to start from. I teach the same students yearly until they move on to high school so in the Fall we will not start from scratch.
A week before the Fellowship started I directed a week long summer program for students participating in Catalyst: Creating Opportunities in STEM for Students with Disabilities. This is a new pilot program I started at NC Science House with a wonderful team, to give more supports for high school students with disabilities in STEM so they can learn STEM Content, Skills and Educational Pathways for STEM Careers. This week included many of the skill sets or topics I have used this week in my Fellowship, from students learning about: animal science and health with chickens , human health with labs, technologies with 3D Printers Work and Coding Raspberry Pi’s , Citizen Science, labs, to One World One Health, in the pictures below. In addition Catalyst Program taught students not only STEM Content and skills but about educational pathways in STEM from certificates to PhD’s and future careers in STEM. This Program will also have 8 monthly Saturday Sessions during the school year.
I plan to utilize what I learn in all these settings. I want to teach my students about the technologies I have learned from Lilly Pads to TI Sensors and how to use them. I want them to learn about the Engineering Design Process, which I want to implement more in my classroom. I also want them to learn more thinking processes such as Mind Mapping and Ideation of ideas to solve problems with technologies. I want them to learn about the various careers in this field and how they might match their strengths to work in these fields. I hope I will support them better to learn these technologies since I am new to them too, I understand better, what background knowledge they need to succeed and also I will make them comfortable in trying them out.
I also hope to increase their understanding of One World One Health and how we are interconnected with the environment which is becoming harder to teach since many of my students do not “go out” much but are on electronics or rarely get into the woods. I hope my students will see themselves as leaders and learners of science and can problem solve. I want them to understand failure in design/science is common but perseverance is what is needed, which is a life long skill. I want them to utilize their strengths to solve problems and not concentrate on their disabilities. Many of my students who have disabilities, do not always see their strengths since they have failed many times and are not always the ones who “shine” in class. I try to change this perception daily may have of them selves and also others have of them too. Some fellow educators I have seen do not expect them to be successful although many of our most famous scientists have had disabilities. Many students with Disabilities are underrepresented in STEM and learning these skills could help them on the pathway to STEM Careers. Also I am a big supporter of having science accessible to all and want my students to be exposed to cutting edge technologies and science as in this Field.
In my clubs, Science Explorers and Citizen Science, I want to students to learn about this Field and Content. May of the students who are in my school come from low income families and have not been exposed to wide range of career options in STEM. Many would not have heard about Textile Engineering, Nanotechnology. I want to have some sessions on this for my club.
I also hope to have a group participate in the Wearable Devices Completion. I think due to transportation issues, I will have this as part of my intervention club which is for one hour weekly. I will model my lessons on the process I completed as part of the Kenan Fellowship at the ASSIST Center.
I am also completing my Environmental Educators Certification. I want to show both my students in the Citizen Science Club and other Environmental Educators how technology, the engineering design process, can help solve environmental problems and how to integrate One World One Health in environmental education programs and opportunities.
I want to have sessions in the monthly Saturday classes for Catalyst on Nanotechnology, Wearable Devices and the Engineering Design Process for students in the program. I think this will enhance their exposure to STEM Content and future careers too.
As part of NSTA Special Education Advisory Board I work on making high quality science accessible to all and also viewing students with disabilities as science leaders and learners. We are working of a Website with links which I hope to share my lesson plans. I also will so far be presenting in the Fall at Bridging the Gap in STEM at NCSU with NCABR and at NSTA Conference in Philadelphia. I plan to use what I learn to teach other educators about this topic and ways to implement it in their classrooms. I hope to present at other conferences and PD’s too. I also plan to share it with teachers in my school.I also will write grants so students can go on Field Trips and get the technologies and materials I need to implement all I learned in the classroom.
As my Blog is called: Small World (of Nanotechnology and also the World is Growing “Smaller” and more interconnected with the Internet and Travel), Big Ideas ( of Wearable Devices, Nanotechnology, Engineering Design, Energy Harvesting and One World One Health) Great Possibilities ( For my learning and improving as a teacher, teaching my students so they learn high quality STEM, Science and Life Skills and have a great future and improving our Community and world by application of technologies and STEM), this Fellowship will impact all these areas.
