2024-2025 Science News Learning Ambassadors
The Science News Learning Ambassadors are educators from across the country who have been inspiring their middle and high school science students with Science News journalism for years! They are Science News Learning expert teachers who want to share their love of teaching science literacy using current, real-life examples with others throughout the school year. Ambassadors partner with program staff to give meaningful feedback and develop new, creative lesson plans using Science News Learning resources and solutions for their own classrooms.
The 2024-2025 Science News Learning Ambassadors collaborated as a cohort during the 2024 High School Research Teachers Conference to set their individual outreach goals and present their use of the Science News Learning program in their own classrooms. Ambassadors are also working to develop their own classroom resources using program materials and will implement their new lessons in their 2025 classes. Check out each Ambassador’s journey and favorite resources below!
Tandi Steffens
Tandi is a science teacher at Grandview Middle School in Grandview, Missouri. As the sole science teacher at her school, Tandi uses Science News Learning articles to generate discussion and connect to units she’s teaching in her classes. Tandi enjoys using the different reading levels in Science News and Science News Explores to provide options for her students.
Tandi hopes to inspire new teachers to incorporate current events into their classroom with Science News Learning, and provide tips for how to group students and assign readings based on reading level without creating any stigma in the classroom.
“I use Science News Learning lesson plans as a starting point when I find articles related to the unit’s topics. I love the leveled articles because they let my students cover the same material at their level, preventing the stigma of alternate assignments for those lower-level students.”
Lesson Plans Tandi is Creating:
- A template for teachers with ideas for how to use Science News and/or Science News Explores articles with students, including as a lab replacement, emergency sub plan and last-minute assignment.
- A “NewsDay Tuesday” activity using Science News and/or Science News Explores articles for a monthly engagement activity to help students relate science to the real world.
Tandi’s Favorite Science News Learning Resources:
- Lesson Plan: Cats are liquid
- Article: Watch: At-home experiments shed light on cats’ liquid behavior
“I have a poster of a big, white, fluffy cat in a clear glass bowl with the caption ‘Cats are liquids. Liquids take the shape of the container while maintaining a constant volume.’ So, when this article and lesson plan came out, I was super-excited! All of my students have noticed the poster and commented, so I use it to introduce the article.”
Cara Hale-Hanes
Cara is a chemistry teacher at Ernest McBride High School in Long Beach, California. Cara finds Science News and Science News Explores articles incredibly useful for making connections to curricular standards and bringing concepts alive for her students. This year, for her unit on atomic structure, Cara connected concepts to articles on rare earth elements.
Cara presented a professional development session called Building a Unit with Science News Learning to program teachers in November, where she led teachers through her strategy of choosing a standard, defining which core concepts are part of that standard, finding articles that connect those concepts to the real world and incorporating them into her class to help make those core concepts relatable to students. She hopes to share her strategy more broadly at the National Science Teachers Association conference later this year.
“I have seen a big improvement in my students’ writing skills as a result of the increased use of both Science News and Science News Explores. Science News Learning has also helped me strengthen my curriculum by drawing more connections between the NGSS curriculum and the real world of science.”
Lesson Plan Cara is Creating:
- Students will design a project where they propose the use of materials they learn about in Science News and Science News Explores articles to build a sustainable home.
Cara’s Favorite Science News Learning Resources:
- Lesson Plan: Dig into atomic models
- Article: Building a better battery
Rosalyn Parson
Rosalyn is a biology and environmental science teacher at Friendship Public Charter School-Collegiate Academy in Washington, DC. Rosalyn uses Science News Learning resources to support her schoolwide reading initiative, as a way to get students reading and discussing current, content-specific articles. She supports their reading with paired Science News Learning lesson plans that tie the articles to core science concepts and test students’ reading comprehension
“Science News Learning has been a lifesaver this year. We started an initiative to have students reading complex texts in every class and I immediately knew where I could find articles and associated questions to support my students with their various ability levels.”
Social Media and Literacy Ambassadors
This year, we’re excited to have two new types of Ambassador to support specific program goals.
Shelley Seagraves is our Science News Learning Social Media Ambassador. Shelley is a science research teacher at Rockdale Magnet School for Science and Technology in Conyers, Georgia. Shelley is helping Science News Learning grow its brand on social media by posting about how she uses the Science News Learning program on Facebook and Instagram.
Janice Lewis is our Science News Learning Literacy Ambassador. Janice is an environmental science and research teacher at Felix Varela Senior High School in Miami, Florida. This year, Janice is creating 5 graphic organizer templates that will help teachers incorporate core literacy skills into their classroom while using the Science News and Science News Explores articles.
