This month, we recognize Beverly Weinstein at Franklin D. Roosevelt Middle School in Bristol Township.

This year marks Beverly’s 21st year teaching Earth science.  Beverly taught Earth science and geology for 14 years at Truman High School, where she also served as the high school science department chair.  During her time at Truman High, Beverly took over the coordination and revitalized the Bucks County Science Teachers Association, organizing mini-conference style meetings twice a year with keynote speakers.  When she transitioned to teaching at FDR Middle School, she won a PECO Energy Grant and coordinated a school-wide energy fair.  Beverly is also known and respected by her peers for being active in every district effort to develop K-12 standards, curricular frameworks, and enhanced science scope and sequence guides.

Congratulations, Beverly - you clearly are a PAESTAR!

This month, we recognize PAESTA President Kelly Hunter for going above-and-beyond in her duties as the leader of our organization.  In the past month alone, Kelly has participated in a conference call with the National Earth Science Teachers Association (NESTA) to report on PAESTA's activities and upcoming events, co-presented to the Penn State Earth and Space Science Partnership Advisory Board about PAESTA and its strategic plan, and coordinated and worked at a PAESTA information table at the Franklin Institute's Educators' Night Out.

Congratulations, Kelly - you clearly are a PAESTAR!

This month, we recognize Adam Durant, 7th and 8th grade science teacher that started at The Meredith School in Philadelphia last year.  In the words of his nominator: "He has been a breath of fresh air. Overall, I would say that his biggest impact is the continued improvement of the Meredith students' work for the end of the year science fair. The projects are more clearly organized, objectives are more often measurable, and the presentations were more attractive and easier to follow. In the classroom, Mr. Durant is efficient, organized, and enthusiastic about science. He is thought of as fun, creative, and fair.  His lessons are organized and include a regular review session and well developed PowerPoint presentations on the topic of the day.  Students are rewarded for hard work and for improvement. Mr. Durant's homework is also seen as reasonable and well organized. He gives students choices on each assignment and encourages students to delve deeply into the topics at hand.

"My one hope for Mr. Durant is that he continue the trend he started early last year to make his lessons as hands on and experiential as possible." We at PAESTA hope Mr. Durant continues this excellence in the classroom as well.

Congratulations, Adam - you are clearly a PAESTAR!

This month, we recognize Walter Wilkinson from Northwest Middle School in the Reading School District in Leesport, PA. Wally has led the efforts at his school to create a school garden as an outdoor learning laboratory. With support from parents and community members, the garden serves as a site for education and environmental awareness. The food is harvested, prepared and served in their school cafeteria, and extra food is donated to a local food pantry. Students are not only engaged in growing food, they collect water in rain barrels and compost food from their school cafeteria to sustain the garden. Members of the school’s Science Club even volunteer on Saturdays to maintain the garden.

Congratulations, Wally - for your dedication to getting students involved with your school garden, you are clearly a PAESTAR!