Profile: Sheree Kearns

Space Foundation Teacher Liaisons serve as active links between the Space Foundation, NASA, and their schools and school districts. They are a select group of educators who want to inspire the next generation of students to pursue and excel in the areas of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM).

Applications are now being accepted for a new flight of Teacher Liaisons for 2011 (see related article) and the Space Foundation is seeking applicants like Sheree Kearns.

Kearns, facilities director of the Challenger Learning Center at Kirby-Smith Middle School, Jacksonville, Fla., has been a Space Foundation Teacher Liaison since 2006. She was one of 14 educators nationwide to receive "Gold Star" honors this year in the NASA-sponsored Top Stars contest, conducted by the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES) in cooperation with the Space Telescope Science Institute. Kearns was awarded a Gold Star for her lesson, "Galactic Brain Buster Brawl," a game show concept with a PowerPoint platform.

Kearns also received a Toyota SOAR award for her lesson "Danger! Grand Zero at Watubu," a student role-play disaster scenario to evacuate a small island from a volcanic eruption and hurricane. More of Kearns' lessons can be found at www.challenger.org/.

"Teacher Liaison applicants do not need to be traditional classroom teachers, they can serve a community as Sheree does with the Challenger Learning Center," said Space Foundation space education specialist Bobby Gagnon, who manages the program. "The Space Foundation is simply looking for passionate educators who are willing to learn and grow from the experience."

More information about Space Foundation education programs is available here.

Pictured: Teacher Liaison Sherre Kearns works on a group project in a 2010 Space Foundation Space Across the Curriculum technology class.

This article is part of Space Watch: September 2010 (Volume: 9, Issue: 9).