Renee Haines Martinsburg, WV | 7-12, Science, 2021

The official biography below was current at the time of the award.

Renee Haines teaches at Martinsburg High School, where she has been an educator for 17 years. Her expertise is in the life sciences, and she teaches Biology Honors, Advanced Placement Biology, Dual Enrollment Biology through West Virginia University, and Microbiology for grades 10-12. Renee loves to collaborate with local organizations to expose students to field learning. In the local watershed, students conduct water quality testing on streams and creeks that feed our local water supply. As students explore their world, Renee wants to empower a lifetime of independent learning. With this in mind, students participate in Genius Hour where they design semester-long projects to enhance research, writing, and presentation skills. Engaging students to love science is her passion, demonstrated through her development of the Traveling Science Show with Science National Honor Society students as they visit local kindergarten through eighth grade classrooms to conduct hands-on experiments. The Traveling Science Show now reaches 1,500 to 2,000 students a year. When COVID restricted traveling for shows, Renee initiated and produced a Virtual STEM Day to reach students at home. On her district’s Curriculum Instructional Leadership Team, Renee helped train colleagues on a literacy model implemented districtwide. In collaboration with her English colleagues, Renee developed cross-curricular research projects. Renee and her colleague presented their successes at the Literacy Leaders conference hosted by Shepherd University. Renee earned a B.S. in biology and an M.A. in secondary education, both from West Virginia University. She is certified in biology and general sciences and holds a National Board certification in adolescent and young adulthood sciences for biology.

• High-resolution version of the teacher profile photograph

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