By
Jennifer Do
Sports
Editor
For students, lighting a light bulb using
only a wire and a battery is challenging, especially with no instruction.
Physics teacher, Mrs. Lori Andersen, however, believes in “jumping right in” to
learn new things, including the bulb experiment.
“By doing labs, students don’t rely on me to
learn the information. They figure it out themselves and I can just be a guide
when they need help,” said Andersen who has been teaching for ten years,
including two years at Grafton.
Andersen’s optimistic, ‘can-do’ attitude led
her to apply for a teaching grant, and in February, she received the VSP Vision
of Science Award from the National Science Teachers Association. “I was
surprised when I won. It was unexpected,” said Andersen.
Andersen used the study of the anatomy of the
eye as well as the physics of how lenses work and how vision is corrected to
write a proposal. This idea for the grant proposal started when she attended a
workshop at Vanderbilt for teachers where they learned about interdisciplinary
units of study.
The physics teacher received $3000 for
equipment for the school and $2000 as a personal award from the NSTA. Andersen
will receive the award this spring at the national convention.
Winning awards comes in second, however, to
what Andersen really loves to do. She enjoys working with her students and
teaching them new things. “Mrs. Andersen makes physics easy to understand,”
said junior Charlie Barnett. According to Barnett, Andersen assigns labs so
that the students can understand the lesson, as well as remember it when it
comes time to taking the test. “The labs help me a lot because I’m doing
hands-on activity instead of just reading from a book and I’m an interactive
learner,” said Barnett.
“I think labs definitely help students
understand the lesson better because it’s different than just reading it from a
book. It forces the students to process the analysis on their own and process
it mentally and when students have to think about it, they understand it,” said
Andersen.
Labs allow students to work with equipment
and get hands-on experience. “I like teaching because I like playing with the
equipment, doing labs, and figuring out how things work, and labs inside the classroom
allow students to do all three,” said Andersen.
“It’s exciting to hear that Mrs. Andersen won
an award,” said junior Wayne Howard. Howard thinks projects, such as the
science fair, help him in the class because it forces him to research the topic.
“The science fair project not only allowed me to work with my friends and learn
more about physics, but Mrs. Andersen also gave us extra credit for it,” said
Howard.
According to junior Lauren Clark, Mrs.
Andersen is a flexible teacher and creates a very comfortable learning
environment for her students. “We get to sit where we want, and we choose who
we want to work with,” said
Andersen prefers to change her classroom
around and make new seating arrangements so that students can work in different
groups and interact with classmates they wouldn’t normally work with, but she
also allows students to work in groups they like working in.
With four kids of her own, Andersen
still tries to go to the plays, football games, and other school activities. “I
like to relate to my students outside of the classroom,” said Andersen.
In her spare time, she plays Guitar Hero with her husband and kids. “I play on medium now,” said Andersen. She has a 204 note streak on a song on easy. “We recently bought two guitars so that we can play on co-op,” said Andersen. Guitar Hero helps Andersen get away from school on weekends and relax. It also gives her a chance to see what her students are interested in outside of school.