The Presidential Award is an honor celebrating my passion to improve the quality of science education and opportunity for all of my students. It validates that integration of academic standards, diversity in teaching strategies and assessments, collaboration among scientists and students, professional learning and immersion into place-based field work inspires students. The award is truly a recognition of my amazing students whose excitement for learning inspire me to be a better teacher.

Stacy Golden Sitka, AK | 7-12, Science, 2021

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

Stacy Golden has been a teacher for 21 years in the Sitka School District. Her career began with 16 years at Blatchley Middle School teaching eighth-grade Physical Science and sixth-grade Life Science. She is in her fifth year at Sitka High School where she teaches Life Science to freshmen and Field Science and Marine Biology to juniors and seniors. Stacy loves her career as a teacher and is constantly striving to incorporate hands-on activities and the local ecosystem. She has taught middle school students activities that range from Rube Goldberg’s Egg Droppers to building the Ultimate Deep Sea Creature and exploring marine invertebrates through settling plates. High school opportunities focus on forest and coastal exploration: snorkeling, marine and land based transect work, wetland exploration, fish trapping, oceanography work, dissections of locally, sustainably harvested animals, and collaboration with local scientists and science agencies allow science education to come alive. Two major sources of inspiration for Stacy include her time as a participant in Teachers and Researchers Exploring and Collaborating and as a teacher at sea with the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge. These opportunities immersed her in the field in Northern Canada and throughout the Aleutian chain learning about frost boils, seabirds, northern fur seals and volcanoes. Stacy attended Sheldon Jackson College to follow her dreams of living amongst the whales in Alaska. She earned a B.S. in aquatic resources, emphasis in marine biology in 1998. Determined to build a life in Sitka, Stacy worked as a marine naturalist. Discovering her passion for sharing the biodiversity of the local ecosystem lead her to an M.A.T. through the University of Alaska Southeast.

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