Sarah Slack Email & Phone Number

Throughout my fifteen years as an educator, I have endeavored to integrate authentic science and engineering experiences into my classroom. This process begins by expanding my own understanding and my network of subject matter experts to support the creation of new student learning opportunities. To this end, I was an intern on a NASA research team studying the urban heat island effect. With support from Fund for Teachers, I spent a summer driving around the country studying wolves in various settings. Through the PolarTREC program, I participated in a research expedition to the Southern Ocean, helping to quantify the impacts of warming water on a glacier. Through Math for America, I’ve attended professional development on topics ranging from 3D printing to dog cognition to the math of gerrymandering. As a result of these experiences, I developed lessons that had my eighth grade students running a gel electrophoresis experiment, analyzing satellite data of sea surface temperature, assembling and programming Arduino sensor systems, 3D printing a replacement jointed human digit, and starting and maintaining hydroponic grow towers. With a supportive administration and with funding from grants such as Samsung Solve for Tomorrow and VOYA Unsung Heroes, I was able to purchase supplies for these activities, and I saw the way my students responded to the opportunity to work with actual scientific equipment and novel technology. These projects have not only enhanced students' technological and engineering literacy but also inspired them to pursue further studies and careers in STEM fields. My creativity, ingenuity, and resourcefulness as an educator are all factors that contributed to my receiving the Muller Prize for Professional Influence and the FLAG Award for Excellence, two highly prestigious prizes in the education field in New York City.