Earning this award means that I have elevated my teaching to a level that is distinguished. I am a highly-reflective teacher and am constantly revising and trying new things to improve student success. Earning this award validates all of my hard work and dedication to the profession. I look forward to the prestige that this award will bring to my school, the opportunities to continue to improve my teaching, and the networking opportunities that will further science education with my students.

Laura McCreery Davenport, IA | 7-12, Science, 2023

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

Laura McCreery has been a life science educator for the past 20 years at Davenport North High School. She serves as the Department Chair and has taught a variety of subjects including Biology, Genetics, Zoology, Forensics, Anatomy and Physiology, Advanced Placement Biology, and dual enrollment Environmental Science. She teaches grades 9-12; currently a majority of her students are in the 10th or 11th grade. Laura is dedicated to enthusiastic and dynamic teaching as a means of creating a lifelong love of learning in her students. She works to incorporate project-based learning with the implementation of place-based education and local-science phenomena. This year students in her classroom had the opportunity to research, develop, and present solutions to a neighboring city to reduce their stormwater runoff problem. The city planner has written a grant to implement some of their recommended solutions. Laura has served as a member of the Iowa Watershed Project School Pilot for Project Based Learning and has developed several place-based phenomena lessons for the Iowa Science Phenomena. She is also the sponsor of the science bowl team, the environmental club “Green Team”, envirothon team, and Junior Optimist International service club. Laura has publications in the Iowa Science Teachers Journal on her experience with the Center for Whale Research and in Aquatic Mammals for her thesis on crabeater seal vocalizations. Laura earned a B.S., magna cum laude, in biology and education from Mount Mercy University; an M.S. in biology from Western Illinois University; and a Master of Education in curriculum and instruction for science K-14 from Concordia University. She is certified in biology and chemistry education grades 7-12.

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