Teacher of the Year makes science real
New Hampshire's Carolyn Kelley uses 'the new three-Rs approach' to education: rigor, relevance, and relationship.
from the March 1, 2007 edition
Page 3 of 4
The responsibility is paired with a relaxed attitude. "She is really friendly and bubbly and probably the most fun teacher I've ever had," Kaila says. She makes jokes, "sometimes corny ones," adds Kaila's lab partner, Jessor Baugh.
"I wouldn't give anything to the students to work on that I wouldn't enjoy doing," Kelley says. "If you love science, which I do, it's just so easy to make it interesting and pass on that enthusiasm."
Kelley drives home the relevance by involving students in the community. For one project, they met with families affected by Alzheimer's and put together an educational handbook. Another time, they created a biotech exhibit for children at Boston's Museum of Science.
The teens also choose individual research projects. Kaila is surveying local vets about feline leukemia, which has affected her cat. Samantha loves fish, so she's testing their memory with a routine of turning tank lights on before they're fed.
Students at SST also do summer internships to check out potential career paths. People who host Kelley's students frequently tell her that their skills outshine those of many college students. She's recently put up a "Wall of Fame" outside her classroom, showing what former students did for internships – everything from studying genetics to tracing suicide trends with the medical examiner's office – and what they're now studying in college.
Two SST biotech interns have worked with Vaughn Cooper, an assistant professor of microbiology and genetics at the University of New Hampshire in Durham. One, a freshman at UNH, still works in Mr. Cooper's lab. "He's one of our best students," Cooper says by phone. In high school, "he was a good student but not one of those blinding all-star students ... but it's clear that the experience he got in [Kelley's] classes ... really lit a fire under him. When he showed up in my lab he started to swim right away."
RSS feed
