The four “Ultimate Science Classrooms,” displaying science products and materials valued at $150,000, attracted hundreds of educators at the NSTA National Conference on Science Education in Boston. Each educator hoped to win a science classroom for their school, stocked with teaching tools donated by exhibitors at the conference.
And the winners are …
Excitement built as the audience gathered to hear NSTA Executive Director Gerry Wheeler announce each winner. Drawing names from brass containers in each grade band (elementary, middle, high school, and college), Wheeler called out the winners. Cheers went out for Dean Martin, elementary science specialist from Gardner Pilot Academy in Boston. Adam Felzani, 6th grade science teacher from McCarthy Middle School in Chelmsford, Massachusetts, was next, followed by high school teacher Cheryl Miller, Hemet Academy for Applied Academics and Technology, Hemet, California, and finally college professor Thomas Molesky, Medical Careers Institute, Newport News, Virginia.
From left: Tom Molesky, Cheryl Miller, Gerry Wheeler, Dean Martin, Adam Felzani.
The four winners were thrilled and began to imagine the impact on their students and their teaching abilities. Dean Martin said, “It’s going to offer so many opportunities to connect what we’re doing in the classroom [to the outside world]. It will help [answer students’ questions like] ‘how can I take what I’m doing in class and use it later?’ [I’ll be able to] … excite students and use this as motivation to go into science fields.”
NSTA believes that’s what it’s all about. A big thank-you is extended to the national vendors who generously donated.
Click below to see the contents of the four classrooms: