Five Winning Science Everywhere Teachers Are Announced

As part of a campaign to bring science and math outside the classroom, five teachers each win $5,000 for submitting innovative projects

As part of the Science Everywhere campaign, teachers assign projects for students to complete outside the classroom. All photos courtesy of DonorsChoose.org.

You wouldn’t necessarily expect elementary school students to map out areas in their community with high concentrations of carbon dioxide and offer solutions to improve air quality. But this project and many others like it were submitted — and implemented — by teachers across the country as part of the Science Everywhere campaign.

The carbon dioxide project, titled “Creating Air Quality Maps of My Community,” was submitted by Milton Fernandez, a teacher from Miami, Florida. He was one of five winning teachers announced on Tuesday, October 10. Each teacher received $5,000.

Science Everywhere, a DonorsChoose.org campaign supported by Science Sandbox and the Overdeck Family Foundation, provided funding for innovative, out-of-school science and math projects. Teachers from all 50 states created and implemented these projects, with the hope that other educators will be able to easily replicate them for their own students.

The winning projects were selected by a panel of judges that included astronaut Leland Melvin, NFL player Victor Cruz, TV personality Science Bob, neuroscientist Leslie Vosshall, Overdeck Family Foundation chair Laura Overdeck, and Simons Foundation president Marilyn Simons.

Read more about the campaign and the winning projects — which also included five runners-up — here.

The winners were:

Milton Fernandez, Seminole Elementary School (Miami, Florida): “Creating Air Quality Maps of My Community“
Onize Isa, Orangeburg-Wilkinson High School (Orangeburg, South Carolina): “Chemistry in Our World“
Vanessa Lail, Grandview Middle School (Hickory, North Carolina): “Learning Grows at Home: Amazing Bending Plants!“
Nancy Kowalczyk, Cool Valley Elementary School (St. Louis, Missouri): “The Science Behind the Music“
Michelle Scheet, Saddlebrook Elementary School (Omaha, Nebraska): “Super Scientist“