Jessica Geddes wants her seventh grade students at Alexandria’s Patrick Henry K-8 School to know that science doesn’t have to be scary. “We are all natural problem solvers. If you want to do something, do it. If you have questions, go find the answers. Middle schoolers are trying to figure out what bucket they fit into, and I’ll help them start that conversation.”
The life science teacher engages her students by involving them in scientific problem solving. “Some of the topics I teach can be a little dry, so it helps to make them as hands-on as possible,” she says. Virtual reality glasses bring lessons to life: “The kids can actually watch air fronts collide or see what a killer whale eats for dinner, rather than just doing a Google search.”
Even simple materials make learning more interesting. “For a unit on classification, I set out little plastic animals and asked students to group them according to differences,” says Geddes. She also takes students outside to collect plants, from which they make their own slides in order to study the difference between animal and plant cells.
“At the beginning of the year, I love to start with a simple bubble lab, where kids alter the solutions of bubble water just to play around with the scientific method and engineering process,” says Geddes. “That gets them really comfortable with the process of discovery and excited about learning.” From there, Geddes moves on to more complex activities, like having students build their own DNA models, or tilting a stream table to explore watersheds.
Patrick Henry is a school in a high poverty area. “Ms. Geddes brings educational experiences in-house that our underserved community otherwise would not be able to access,” says Principal Ingrid Bynum. That includes lining up experts in science,
technology, engineering, and math to engage with students at the school’s science fair.
“Ms. Geddes invited professionals to come in and explain their jobs to the whole middle school. This helped our students understand how their science fair experiments and projects actually apply to real-world science that adults are using in STEM careers now.”
Bynum notes that seventh grade is a time when students often exhibit disengagement from learning. “That doesn’t happen in Ms. Geddes’ class,” says Bynum. “She examines where each child is academically, socially, and emotionally in order to remove any barrier that precludes success. She wants students leave their burdens outside the door when they arrive at school so they can enjoy the time they spend in her classroom.”
Fellow teacher Stacey Fernandez says Geddes goes the extra mile to make lessons and labs meaningful. “All of the students, current and former, adore her. So many kids want to stop by her classroom when they go to their locker that I had to remind them that requires a hall pass.”
A late bloomer who struggled with reading, Geddes recalls how her second grade teacher took her under his wing. “He created this nurturing environment for me and the other students, and I suddenly skyrocketed. Now, I strive to create that same kind of environment for my own students.”
Feature image by Amie Otto
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This story originally appeared in our October 2023 issue’s Teacher of the Year story. For more stories like this, subscribe to our monthly magazine.
