Diana Allen Sanford, ME | 7-12, Science, 2023

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

Diana Allen has been an educator since 2000, beginning as a sixth grade English and Social Studies teacher at Shapleigh Middle School for two years. After a one-year pause, she started at Sanford Middle School and has remained there for more than 20 years. At Sanford Middle School, Diana has been teaching seventh grade life and environmental science. Aquaponics was her first delve into meaningful hands-on activities; her current system is two 500-gallon tanks feeding into a 700 hundred square foot greenhouse growing herbs and vegetables. Once she began implementing anchoring phenomenon and place-based education into her teaching practices, students started conducting watershed investigations, focusing on water quality and plastic pollution. Donning waders and dip nets, her students have participated in invasive species, amphibian, and macro invertebrate scientific studies. Diana has presented at National Science Teaching Association conferences as well as state and local conferences. Recently, she planned a Maine Science Teachers Association conference focused on outdoor education for 150 educators. Last summer, Diana attended two hands-on, field-based watershed science professional development opportunities that have shaped her outdoor learning approaches. Previously, her most influential professional development experiences were the Elevating and Celebrating Excellent Teachers and Teaching by the Gates Foundation focused on teacher leadership and the NGSX and Sensemaking which added Productive Talk, Anchoring Phenomena, and many other tools to her teaching practice. Diana earned a B.S. in history with a minor in geosciences and a master’s degree in teaching and learning from the University of Southern Maine. She is certified in kindergarten through eighth grade.

• High-resolution version of the teacher profile photograph

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