The State Hygienic Laboratory is hosting four Iowa math and science teachers for six-week immersive experiences through the Iowa STEM Teacher Externships Program. Since 2011, SHL has hosted several Iowa teachers to give them hands-on experience in a public health laboratory.

The Governor’s STEM Advisory Council created the program in 2009 to give school teachers experience in real-world applications of courses they teach. The lessons learned in the public health laboratory, as well as in other government agencies and private businesses, then may be shared in the classroom to introduce students to STEM careers. This summer, 74 teachers from Iowa junior high and high schools are taking part in the program.

The four teachers learning at SHL are Megan Bezdicek from Spirit Lake High School and Joann Kenny from Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn High School in Hartley who are working with Dennis Heimdal, environmental lab specialist at the Iowa Lakeside Laboratory Regents Resource Center in Milford. Kathryn Hafner from Williamsburg Jr/Sr High School and Megan Washburn from Wilson Middle School in Cedar Rapids are working out of the lab’s Coralville location with a number of staff members.

Joann Kenny

Joann Kenny

Kenny teaches life science classes at Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn High School, including biology, human anatomy and physiology, and environmental science. She entered the externship with few expectations, but has discovered much that will tie into her classes.

“I have learned so much about water testing,” she said. “I see the connections of how watersheds impact larger bodies of water. The science behind how they impact it is much clearer. I can't wait to take this information back to the classroom.”

Kenny plans to develop some lessons that have students looking at water quality, watersheds and human impact on water quality. She says that the knowledge and greater understanding she has gained this summer will help when “I discuss human impact and how we, humans, can lessen our impact on the world. I will work this into a project that I currently complete on decreasing our environmental impact.”

Megan Bezdicek

Megan Bezdicek

Bezdicek teaches earth science, conceptual chemistry and conceptual physics at Spirit Lake High School. She has worked with the Lakeside Lab for the past two summers. The experience helps her challenge her students to identify a water quality problem in a “Water CSI-type” program.

“My main goal for this summer was to make the project we already do even better. I would really like for them [her students] to get out in the field like Joann and I did,” she said. “Dennis and I are working to get the students taking samples and doing tests, and then using critical thinking and problem solving to come up with a testable hypothesis, then take that hypothesis to the lab and run tests.”

Megan Washburn right with CDC Public Health Associate Jenny Ostrowski

Megan Washburn

Washburn, in her seventh year of teaching, is moving from Iowa City’s South East Junior High to Wilson Middle School in Cedar Rapids. She will be teaching seventh grade integrated science this fall.

Though she thought she would be learning “about different diseases and bacteria, and how the Lab is working to help keep our food and water safe,” her experiences at SHL involved much more.

“I learned about how several 21st Century skills are used at the State Hygienic Lab. The most important ones are critical thinking skills and communication skills,” Washburn said. “I have always worked to incorporate these skills into my classroom, but I feel working here at the State Hygienic Lab gives me more real work examples and experiences to take back to my students in their labs and classroom activities.”

Washburn spent her externship in various areas of the lab working on several projects that she may use in her science classes, including one on antibiotic-resistant bacteria to be used in the genetics unit.

“I would also like to design an emergency management project, but that still is in the brainstorming phase,” she said. “After working with Limnology, I would also like to use local waterways to help teach our ecology unit.”

Kathryn Hafner

Kathryn Hafner

Hafner teaches math 7, math 8 and geometry at Williamsburg Jr/Sr High School. She also entered the externship program not knowing what to expect, and has “been surprised by just how much I don’t know.”

Her openness in approaching the program led her to ask the question, “What skills from K-12 education do students need to be successful in the workforce?” Hafner said, “Many of the responses I received fell into the category of ‘soft skills’ — effective communication, organization, meeting deadlines, being self-directed learners, etc.”

This feedback has reminded Hafner that “while I'm tasked with teaching math curriculum, I also need to be cognizant of helping students develop these important skills for their next steps in life, whether it be additional education or the workforce.”