As a former teacher in a small school with seven different courses to teach every day, I empathize with teachers facing the challenge of creating coherent standards based lessons for several courses. Growing levels of diversity is a beautiful phenomenon in classrooms, but also augments that challenge. My desire is to address this grand challenge as a Noyce Master Teacher Fellow. My goal is to provide ongoing individualized professional development to meet the needs of teachers. This program would equip teachers with an understanding of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) and the ability to implement best practices to support those standards in an equitable and inclusive classroom. In order to more effectively lead this kind of change I plan to become more involved at the state and national level in the areas of science education and diversity, inclusion, and equity. With increased involvement and digging deeper into the research about science education research in coursework, I will also hone my skills in the areas of NGSS, pedagogy, and leadership.

Leadership experience in science education:

High School Department Chair, High School Science Task Force Member, PLC Curriculum Lead, STEAM Camp Summer Program Leader, STEAM After School Program Sponsor, Thriving Minds Virtual Summer Program Creator, Thriving Minds Virtual After School Program Creator, SCILLSS Assessment Task Developer, Presenter at NATS