Houston High science teacher Jessica Minton spent her summer proving her dedication to being a lifelong learner and devotion to her students.
In June, she attended the "Science in the Rockies" conference in Denver, where hands-on learning helped prepare her to better teach her students this year. She also was able to bring $500 in learning materials back to Houston. Next, she went to Teacher AirCamp, where she spent four days learning and experiencing all things aviation with other teachers from around the country. Besides the experiences of flight, she once again returned home with hundreds of dollars worth of materials for her classroom.
Next, she spent a week in Milwaukee at the 3D Molecular Designs Office participating in a program called "Modeling the Molecular World." She was able to share her research regarding protein acetylcholinesterase and brought back over $900 of models and materials, including one for the aforementioned protein. Lastly, she was asked back to the Joint Science and Technology Institute after participating in 2018. This year, she worked as a middle school resident assistant instructor and was able to research and experiment with students.
She explained her involvement, saying, “I absolutely love to have huge opportunities like these in order to challenge myself to become better.” On top of her incredible experiences, she was honored with various awards for her dedication.
First, she was named the recipient of the Outstanding Biology Teacher Award (OBTA) through the National Association of Biology Teachers (NABT) for the state of Tennessee. For this honor, she will travel to the NABT Conference in November in Baltimore to accept the award and attend their Professional Development Conference. She is “excited to represent our district and state.” She was named as a DoD STEM Ambassador for 2023-2024 by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA), serving as only one of 26 ambassadors in the country. With this honor, she is thrilled to show her “passion for equity in STEM and science education” on a national level.