FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
21 February 2024
Contact: Marcy Dubroff, Associate Director
717.358.3837
The POGIL Project Names Two Educators Winners of Early Achievement Award (PEACH)
LANCASTER, Pa. — The POGIL Project has named the 2024 winners of its POGIL Early Achievement (PEACH) Award – Amy Steele (Cornerstone Christian School, Olympia, WA), and Kayla Heffernan (University of Pittsburgh – Greensburg, PA).
The award, given annually to one post-secondary and one secondary winner, honors POGIL practitioners who are new to The Project, who have distinguished themselves by advancing the goals of The Project, and who have an exceptional level of enthusiasm for active learning. Other criteria include leadership in The Project, active participation in disseminating the POGIL pedagogy, and other service to The Project, such as workshop facilitation, authorship of activities, and participation in grant proposals.
Heffernan and Steele will be honored at The POGIL Project's upcoming National Meeting in St. Louis in June 2024. Each will be presented with a plaque and a cash award.
"We are thrilled to honor these two outstanding members of the POGIL community with the POGIL Early Achievement Award," said Project Executive Director Rick Moog. "Both Kayla and Amy have had a significant impact on The Project, particularly in helping us to create high quality materials for the classroom. Their efforts been instrumental in our growth and success in the past several years."
Heffernan is an Associate Professor of Mathematics at the University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg. She received her Ph.D. in Mathematics and Science Education from Temple University and has an M.S. in Applied Mathematics and a B.S. in Secondary Mathematics Education. She teaches all levels of mathematics courses at Pitt-Greensburg, with a special interest in the mathematics for education students. Her research interests center on mathematics identity and guided inquiry-based learning. She was introduced to POGIL when her Vice President for Academic Affairs asked her to investigate the teaching strategy to help students better understand and succeed in algebra courses. Since, she has worked with The POGIL Project to publish the College Algebra: A Guided Inquiry book and implements POGIL regularly in her own classes.
“It is such an honor to receive the PEACH award from The POGIL Project,” said Heffernan. “My journey in writing and implementing POGIL activities in my classroom has added so much joy and motivation to my teaching and research. The POGIL community is one that has been tremendously welcoming, encouraging, and supportive, and it is difficult to put into words how much this recognition from the Steering Committee means. I look forward to continuing to work with The Project and writing activities that can hopefully help students to better understand and learn to love mathematics.”
Steele has taught science in Washington State for the past 11 years at Cornerstone Christian School located in Olympia, the state capital. She has also taught in bilingual and English-speaking elementary classrooms as well as working as a Title 1 specialist in reading and math. Her current position allows her to work with the same student population for 3-5 years, which is a tremendous gift and responsibility but also provides a constant source of action research. She was awarded a B.A. in education in 1993 at Howard Payne University in Brownwood, TX, and completed her Master of Science Education at Montana State University in 2021. POGIL was first suggested as a good tool for her small school with limited resources and she began modifying high school activities for middle school students. This led to working with Mare Sullivan, Lori Stanton and others to create a collection of activities geared toward supporting the big ideas in NGSS for middle school students while working on science process skills. Inquiry has always been her preferred way to engage students, yet working within a framework of POGIL activities has given her students a solid foundation in the underlying science principles that are the basis for all other scientific disciplines. Her students thrive with POGILs as they lean towards the developmental needs and strengths of younger teens. She continues to work with middle school students but has recently forayed into grades 9-10 and continues to find POGIL an incredibly rich experience for all grades.
“My hope for winning this award is that it will open conversations and bring more awareness to the POGIL Project and the amazing tool it can be for educators and students across ages, abilities and subject matter,” said Steele.
For more information about The POGIL Project, visit www.pogil.org.
