Greetings parents and students of FHSA! I have taught 28 years, sixth, seventh, and 8th grade science. I received my National Board of Professional Teaching Standards in Early Adolescence Science, and I have a MSE in Public School Administration, but being a life long learner, I have 42 hours in addition to my masters. My passion is science and technology. I enjoy being outdoors and exploring the world around me. I spend my weekends, fishing, rock hunting, boating, swimming, skiing, canoeing, camping, gazing through my telescope, gardening, and being with friends and family. My goal is to ignite special interests and appreciation of science, technology, math, and engineering for your child. I enjoy kids, so I have sponsored many after school clubs in the past. I have sponsored Hooked on Fishing, Jr Master Gardeners, and Jr Engineering. The 2015 FHSA Jr Engineering Team received the overall winning place for the State Level EIT/JET competitions. I live in Hot Springs and drive daily so that I can teach at the best STEM school in Arkansas. I am impressed that STEM is taught k-8th, so when students come to the 8th grade, they are able to problem solve using the engineering and science design processes. Students, parents, and the faculty share the same passion for STEM so it is a nice environment to work. Actually, I have found my niche at FHSA. Last year, students were exposed to the PLTW Design and Modeling and Automation Robotics. This year, I will be teaching Medical Detectives and Intro to Computer Science. Medical Detectives is an exciting curriculum where students study pathogens that cause diseases so that they can identify the disease and give a diagnosis or prognosis. Students will learn how to take vital signs and study the importance of maintaining homeostasis to keep their bodies healthy. There is a forensic component of the course, and students will review genetics in depth and conduct DNA electrophoresis extractions to solve crime scene investigations. They also will extract their own DNA. Time of death formulas will be calculated in this module to give clues to the crime scene investigation. This is a semester long course. The Intro to Computer Science is a semester course, and students will be learning coding and working in MIT APP Inventor. Students will create Apps of their own using the design process. It is the governor's initiative for students to learn the mechanics of programming since our 21st century jobs center around computer technology. Students enjoy playing games and using apps, but in this course, they will learn the importance of reverse engineering so that they can design for themselves. Both courses are rigorous, but exciting, so this will be a wonderful opportunity for learning. I encourage you to ask your child what they are learning so that you can find additional resources; such as, guest speakers, field trips, models, labs, newspaper and journal articles, or any other resources to enhance our studies.
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