Science Super Star: Christine Wallis
May 8, 2020
We are thrilled to recognize Christine Wallis, 2nd Grade Teacher at New Highland Academy in Oakland, as a 2020 Science Super Star!
Christine utilizes Science Class as an engaging and non-intimidating way to help her students foster skills from other subjects. Her lessons often help with students working on English Language Development.
Before, during, and after investigations, she has her students engage with the material by reading, writing, and answering focus questions. She has seen amazing results and encourages other teachers beginning to teach science to do the same:
“Use lots of STEM building activities with complex text.”
Christine strives to create lessons that are relevant to her students’ lives. When exploring the lifecycle of animals, she had her students observe mealworms. After they all had a strong grasp on the lifecycle of an insect, she hosted discussions to help them compare it to the stages of a human lifecycle.
During a unit on sand and pebbles, her students were so engrossed by the subject matter, they used what they know to scout out ‘Earth materials’ on the playground. They presented speeches in the classroom on the importance of keeping beaches clean.
Christine helped provide a concrete experience about the importance of protecting our environment by taking them to the MLK shoreline where they were able to clean up, and learn about the human impact.
She is an avid advocate for using science lessons to engage with students’ lives and help the community. She has her class work with food coop in maintaining food that the students consume. She highlights one student who uses one of his favorite past-times and incorporates practices he has learned from STEM learning:
“I have one student who has constructed an entire village using LEGOs.”