For Immediate Release
12 SEPTEMBER 2023
Contact: Marcy Dubroff, The POGIL Project (717.358.3837)
or Louise Barr, Lancaster Country Day School (717.606.6637)
Lancaster Educator Earns National Teaching Award from American Chemical Society
LANCASTER, Pa. — Laura Trout, an educator at Lancaster Country Day School, and Materials
Coordinator at Lancaster-based national nonprofit The POGIL Project, has been named the
winner of the 2024 James Bryant Conant Award in High School Chemistry Teaching, awarded by
the American Chemical Society.
The award, established in honor of James Bryant Conant, recognizes, encourages, and
stimulates outstanding teachers of high school chemistry in the United States, its possessions or
territories, at the national level. The award is sponsored by the Journal of Chemical Education
and ChemEdX and is named for Conant, an American chemist who was president of Harvard
University, an ambassador to West Germany, and instrumental in the development of synthetic
rubber and the Manhattan Project.
“We are thrilled that Laura has been recognized with this award,” said POGIL Project Executive
Director Rick Moog. “She is a brilliant innovator both in and out of the classroom and is also one
of the most gifted authors of POGIL materials in the country. I cannot think of a more deserving
individual for this honor.”
“Laura is an engaging, innovative educator, and a crucial part of our science department,” said
Matt Micciche, Head of School, Lancaster Country Day School. “We are so proud of her
achievements and congratulate her on this award. Laura exemplifies the kind of dynamic
educators we are fortunate to have on our staff, and is continuously working to improve her
practice for the benefit of her students.”
Trout has a B.S. in chemistry from Central Washington University and a M.S. in chemistry from
the University of Washington. She has been teaching for 30 years in both public and private
schools in Washington State and Pennsylvania, and has been at Lancaster Country Day School
since 2008.
For most of her career, she has taught chemistry at various levels (college prep, honors, AP and
IB). For some of those years she was the STEM coordinator for an elementary school (preK-5)
and served as department head at two different high schools.
Trout has been using POGIL activities in her classes since 2000. She became involved with The
POGIL Project in 2004 and has been writing and implementing guided inquiry activities,
facilitating POGIL workshops and serving the POGIL community ever since. She served as
the Editor-in-Chief for the High School POGIL Initiative (HSPI) which produced four POGIL
activity books for high school—Biology, Chemistry, AP Biology, and AP Chemistry—and is
currently authoring a collection for AP Environmental Studies. She joined The POGIL Project as
its Materials Coordinator and oversees creation and dissemination of workshop materials for
The Project’s professional development sessions.
Trout also helped to produce a lab manual for AP Chemistry for PASCO Scientific which utilizes
POGIL techniques. She was a member of The POGIL Project Steering Committee for two
terms. In 2021, she earned the 2021 DivCHED Award for Excellence in High School Teaching for
MARM (Middle Atlantic Region of the American Chemical Society).
“It is very exciting to receive this recognition,” said Trout. “I credit my success to my many
colleagues. I’ve worked in four high schools during my career, learning something
transformative from my fellow teachers at each one. And The POGIL Project community has
also been instrumental in helping me to hone my craft. I would not be the teacher I am today
without them.”
