Winners CA 2005

Dan Alcorn
Big Valley High School
Bieber, California

Dan Alcorn’s students are nearly as often spotted out of the classroom as in it. A typical day may find them testing the water quality at the local watershed, implanting radio-telemeters in migratory White-Fronted geese, or collecting native plants and extracting their medicinal chemicals for comparison studies with standard antibiotics. Moreover, the outside world comes to the students in the form of visits from doctors, lab technicians, and other experts. “The students are learning by doing and becoming involved in their community,” he says. In addition to being the one and only science teacher at Big Valley High School, Mr. Alcorn also serves as the school’s football coach.

 
 

Ronald Fenenga
Santa Ynez Valley Union High School
Santa Ynez, California

“All kids need hands-on experiences with the experimental method,” says Ronald “Chip” Fenenga, a 20-year veteran teacher who for the last 15 years has taught high school physics and biology. Visitors to his classes may see students learning biology by growing plankton cultures, or gaining an understanding of physics by building and racing their own wooden cars. “When we talk about mitosis and meiosis, I bring in sea urchins and sand castle worms and do actual fertilizations,” Mr. Fenenga says. For the last 16 years, as the Co- Director of the California Science Project at the University of California-Santa Barbara, Mr. Fenenga has worked to help more than 1,000 K-14 teachers improve their science teaching methods.
 
 

Luke Laurie
El Camino Junior High School
Santa Maria, California

Technology is a constant presence in the life and classroom of Luke Laurie, a teacher of Eighth Grade Science and Robotics Science. “I enjoy the added efficiency and impact of using technology to aid instructional delivery, but I also find there are many benefits to having students directly use technology as a learning tool,” says Mr. Laurie, who uses smartboards, videos, and websites to engage and excite his students. As Curriculum Director for the University of California-Santa Barbara’s RoboChallenge, he helps students design and build robots for competitions. An avid Macintosh user, Mr. Laurie enjoys making videos and music and updating his website, where he posts information about his teaching projects for the benefit of students, teachers and the public.
 
 

Jacqueline Rojas
Patrick Henry Elementary School
Anaheim, California

A returned Peace Corps volunteer, Jacqueline Rojas uses her familiarity with Latin culture and language to transfer her passion for scientific inquiry to her fifth-graders, most of whom are from Spanish-speaking homes. “Science provides the opportunity for all children to learn to think critically and make deep connections,” she says, “whatever their level of literacy and regardless of their socioeconomic, cultural, or linguistic background.” At “Family Science Shareouts,” her students guide parents, university professors, and elementary teachers through investigations they have conducted. In addition to her teaching responsibilities, Ms. Rojas is currently pursuing her Ph.D. in Science Education at Curtin University of Technology in West Australia.
 
 

Cindy Suchanek
Mira Loma High School
Sacramento, California

Cindy Suchanek sees her students as global citizens who, through scientific education, can play a part in solutions that maintain or improve our planet’s health. Ms. Suchanek credits her parents with first sparking her appreciation of the natural world. As a child, trips to the ocean and to the high Sierras showed her the complex beauty as well as the fragility of the environment. As an adult, she has explored remote places such as Papua New Guinea, where she coordinated expeditions, and the Caribbean Sea, where she sampled and monitored reefs and seagrass beds. Having taught Environmental Science for more than 25 years, Cindy has helped to give many students a vivid understanding of the importance of sustaining the earth. She has received numerous awards, including a 2004 Governor’s Award for Environmental and Economic Leadership.