Lisa Battig learns about radar from fellow scientists on her NOAA trip. Photo provided by Lisa Battig.by Vivian Yenson and Jennifer Nguyen, Staff Writers
Before starting out the school year, Lisa Battig, an Advanced Placement Environmental Science (APES) and chemistry teacher, went on a two week trip to Alaska to study hydrographic surveying and sonar processes.
Battig’s trip was entirely funded by the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). She learned about the program from her mentor teacher, Dennis Castello, during her first year of teaching in 2005. Due to missed deadlines and complications, Battig never pursued this opportunity until last year in November. After a few months, she received her acceptance and was officially selected to be a part of the program for 2017.
“The whole idea behind it is to get teachers to go on the NOAA trip to spend anywhere from one to four weeks there. It gives us a chance to be very hands-on with what NOAA researches,” said Battig.
Battig plans on incorporating everything that she has learned on her trip to Alaska into her classes as the NOAA program asks selected teachers to develop a lesson plan based on the research that they did. She has decided on a lesson plan that her AP Environmental Science classes will be doing while her chemistry classes will be doing a modified version of the lesson. Also, she will be doing a public presentation, as part of the NOAA requirements, later on this year to spread awareness of the potential careers on NOAA ships.
“I think these opportunities are incredible and I think teachers should take advantages of them. I’d love to see more of our teachers to applying for things like this. I think this type of experience just enriches your ability to teach,” Battig said.
