Twelve science teachers from around the Capital District are participating in Questar III’s Summer Science Research Program in July and August. This selective fellowship offers science teachers the opportunity to work in a science lab for two summers, four days a week, alongside a professional scientist or researcher.
Participants to attend seminars, give presentations, and receive a stipend, as well as funding for classroom equipment. The program pairs first-year fellows with second-year fellows for additional mentoring and discussions.
Sean Higgins, first-year fellow, assists a student with an in-class science activity.
The fellowship also provides professional development and an opportunity to collaborate with the group on lesson plans and science activities for one day per week. Speakers from all over the region come to speak to fellows about an array of topics. The summer culminates with every fellow presenting their work to the entire group; administrators from the fellows’ schools are also invited to the presentations.
This summer’s program will include five returning fellows and seven new fellows. Returning fellows are: Nicole Mantas of Lansingburgh High School, placed at the University at Albany’s RNA Institute to do cancer research; Rebecca Tennyson of Tamarac Middle School (Brunswick), placed at the Wadsworth Labs to work with DNA in viruses and infectious disease; Deborah Mabey of Hoosick Falls High School, placed at the Albany College of Pharmacy to do research in cardiology and other areas; Nathan Porter of Maple Hill High School (Schodack), placed at the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering (CNSE) to work with optical technology; and Kaitlin McGann of Maple Hill High School (Schodack), placed at Momentive Chemical to do materials science with silicones.
The new fellows are: Justin Haviland of Troy High School, placed in the Wadsworth Labs to do virus re-engineering and genome research; Ashley Woitkoski of Lansingburgh High School, placed in Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute’s (RPI) Geology Research Lab to research the geo-chemistry of the deep earth and climatology implications; Kara Sokolowski of New Lebanon High School, placed at the RPI Geology Research Lab to do climatology and atmospheric science; Sean Higgins of Cairo-Durham High School, placed at the Wadsworth Labs to do organic chemistry regarding pollutants; Ben Long of New Lebanon High School, placed at the Wadsworth Labs to research microbiology and genetic engineering; Thomas Guile of Coxsackie-Athens High School, placed at the CNSE to research compound semiconductors, photonics, and electronics; and Kate Sedlack of Catholic Central High School, placed at RPI to research water pollution.
Science teacher Nichole Mantas at Lansingburgh CSD was placed in the Royzen lab at the University at Albany last year, working with organic chemists.
“It truly teaches you how to actively think. We want our students to act and work like scientists, historians, mathematicians, poets, and engineers, but as teachers, once we leave college, how often do we get that opportunity? In research, you’re pulled out of your comfort zone to once again think like a scientist because you are a scientist,” she said.
Maple Hill teacher Nathan Porter was placed in the College of Nanoscience and Engineering last year. “I see more confidence in my students,” he said of the experience. “I think going through the program has given me a better idea of how to scaffold the process with them—where they need to start and where the need to be in the end.” He says that now, instead of offering his students step-by-step instructions for a lab activity, he builds “one-sentence labs” that encourage students to navigate their way using the scientific method.
Cairo-Durham teacher Sean Higgins is looking forward to his first year with the program. “It will give me more real-world experience, more information that I can bring back to my students,” says Higgins. “Plus it’s nice that they provide funding for equipment so that I can do some of these labs and experiments in the classroom.”
The institute is modeled after a program that was started at Columbia University in 1990 by Dr. Samuel Silverstein, the John C. Dalton Professor of Physiology and Cellular Biophysics and Professor of Medicine at Columbia University. That institute produced increased student achievement and improvement in meeting New York State graduation requirements. After the Columbia program’s success, Silverstein collaborated with Questar III to help establish the program upstate.
Questar III Senior Science Specialist Jane King says that the program gives teachers the hands-on experience they need to know to do science research, resulting in new and improved lessons in the classroom. “The program fosters inquiry-based skills that teachers can pass on to students so that they can pursue careers in the STEM field,” she says.
