Jill Henry – National Stem Cell Foundation

Jill’s Big Idea: Jill created a specialized signaling lab so her students could explore the Next Generation Science Standards through the exploration of sound and light waves. Jill uses NGSS standards in her middle school classrooms to create a culture of learning that allows independent thinking and problem solving instead of rote lecturing. Through this project, Jill taught the transformational power of teamwork and collaboration in learning.

Interesting Facts: Jill is very active in the STEM community. As a STEM teacher, Jill has won a grant for thermal energy cameras to help students understand abstract objects, and was one of 185 science teachers selected to attend NASA’s Space Camp in Huntsville, AL in 2012. As part of Jill’s experience with NASA, she learned novel teaching techniques and was provided with custom, space-based curricula created by NASA for classroom use.

In her own words: "Teaching the 21st century learners involves developing activities that encourage critical thinking, problem solving, and collaboration. I feel it is necessary to encourage the development of those skills to help prepare our students for the careers of the future that might not even exist yet."

Rico Tyler (from left) gets assistance creating his wave machine from NSCF Scholars Bruce Boehne, Jill Henry, and Amy Long on Wednesday, June 8. The wave machine can be used as a physical representation of amplitude and also as a double helix model. (Photo by Tucker Allen Covey)

Jill Henry (left) from Herrick Middle School in Downers Grove, Illinois, and Melissa Harris from Warren East Middle in Bowling Green create a hypothesis cube Monday, June 6. (Photo by Tucker Allen Covey)

Jill exploring the NASA exhibit at the National Science Teachers Association conference in 2016

Jill Henry from Herrick Middle School in Downers Grove, Illinois, attaches foam fins to her rocket Tuesday, June 7. The NSCF Scholars built rockets using paper, tape, and foam. (Photo by Sam Oldenburg)

Some of the energy efficient houses Jill’s students designed and built using the Cricut Maker purchased as part of her National STEM Scholar participation!

On being a 2016 STEM Scholar: “I’m always looking for professional development opportunities. It was one of those things where I stumbled upon it and applied to see what would happen, and was fortunate enough to get into the program. The Scholar program opened me up to a larger professional development learning community – this group of teachers that I can email everyone a question and can get an answer in 24 hours. What I’ve found is that when you do a summer development course, you get the people who want to be there, with like-minded ideas. We were an awesome group who really clicked. Scholar week really invigorates you – I was disappointed I had to wait the rest of the summer to start school again, and that’s very rare!”