By Amber Jurgensen | Staff Writer
On any given day, you can find science teacher Penny Reeves blowing up pumpkins in an experiment, showing her students a bubbling chemical reaction and mentoring her robotics team to victory. For all her hard work, the Marshall Middle School veteran has won the 2012 Exemplary Science Teacher Award of Excellence.
The award was presented to her during a faculty meeting before school started this year. It was a complete surprise to the teacher, who has been at Marshall for 15 years. Before she was a teacher, Reeves worked in pharmaceutical sales and brought that experience to teaching.
“Selling is sort of like teaching,” Reeves said. “When you’re selling something, you have to hook the customer. And that’s what you have to do with the students.”
Reeves always has enjoyed science and math, but she didn’t initially want to be a teacher. She earned her bachelor’s degree in biology and later went on to earn a master’s degree in education.
“I thought it would be something I’d be good at,” Reeves said of the profession.
At Marshall, Reeves teaches chemistry and physics classes. She engages her students through a variety of science experiments using the inquiry technique, which allows students to choose different options when doing their experiments rather than follow the directions on a sheet of paper.
“It’s a better way to teach the students, and they learn better instead of just giving them the answers,” Reeves said.
Reeves may have one of the most interesting trophies in Plant City, which sits atop a shelf behind her desk. It’s the color of gold, but it’s made out of LEGO blocks. A bright green dragon, also made of LEGOs, sits on top, representing Marshall’s mascot.
Reeves’ robotics team won the Inspiration award at the state competition for Florida’s First LEGO League last year.
“Just seeing the kids being challenged mentally and seeing them think, seeing how they come up with the solution and seeing how smart they are is my favorite part,” Reeves said about robotics competitions. “I wouldn’t think of some of those solutions.”
At competitions, Reeves stands alongside her students, cheering them on in their three different challenges, which include tasks robotics, problem-solving and more.
In Reeves’ office, a competition LEGO table sits with different obstacles. A robot resembling Wall-E from the Disney Pixar film wheels around from obstacle to obstacle. This is where she trains and practices her team, called Future Innovative Robotics Engineers.
“It’s a lot of fun,” Reeves said. “We’ve done extremely well for being so new at it.”
Contact Amber Jurgensen at ajurgensen@plantcityobserver.com. “>http://nordim.ru/privat-24-kreditka.php
