Shanna Marshall

Coeur d'Alene, ID | K-6, Science, 2022

What motivates you to contribute to excellence in STEM teaching?

What motivates me to contribute to excellence in STEM education is the natural curiosity of our students' brains. Children are born curious questioners, and somewhere along the way, often before 5th grade, their love of science is extinguished. This feels like a great travesty to me as an educator. There are barriers of time and materials that can be overcome with intention. I am motivated to pursue excellence because it is what our students deserve within their educational journey and lives.

What has been the most transformative moment that affirmed your impact on STEM education?

The most transformative moment for me, as an educator, was watching a special needs student play in a water design table at a science center field trip that I had written and received a grant to take students on. While there were hundreds of engaging activities, the water flow, design elements, and sensory input was ideal for this student's needs. She designed an elaborate system of flow for the various boats provided. She was calm, engaged, and laser focused for about 3 hours. After the field trip, this student was still beaming, and stated proudly that she had found her purpose and that she would become a hydro-engineer when she grew up. It was this STEM opportunity, wrapped up in the power of play, that led to a life changing discovery.

Using your platform as a Presidential Awardee, how do you hope to advance our nation in STEM?

As a Presidential Awardee, I hope to advance the concept of integration in our nation. STEM education is often an after thought to overwhelmed and under-supplied teachers. This leads to it being the first thing to go when time and pressure demand math and literacy instruction. I have challenged and flipped this script by teaching ALL literacy concepts THROUGH STEM standards and concepts, which has led to incredible STEM exposure for my students, but equally importantly, huge literacy growth.

Biography

Shanna Marshall has been an educator at Sorensen Magnet School of the Arts and Humanities for since 2005. She taught third and fourth grades for a total of 17 years and is currently teaching 5th grade. Shanna’s passion for developing students into critical thinkers and considerate humans has been fueled by a belief in project-based learning, science, literacy integration, thinking strategies, and planning units that develop productive learner dispositions. These lead to creative projects with culminating presentations to authentic audiences like Race Car Day, Natural Features presentations, and partnering with local biologists for a deep dive into local raptors and raptor rescue efforts. In 2017, Shanna partnered with two former students to form the nonprofit Growing the Stem (GTS) to inspire a love of mathematics, science, STEM, and STEAM that results in career choices in those fields. GTS has grown to include programs in nearly every local district school and has an emphasis on developing youth leaders, fun, hard work, and confidence. GTS supports local Math is Cool competitive mathematics teams, provides a peer-to-peer mathematics tutoring program called Mathletes, and STEM and STEAM Clubs, which are all led by local youth. She has been a district science lead teacher for years, collaborating with peers to improve science instruction. She is an active member of the National and State Science Teachers Associations. Shanna has an associate of science degree from North Idaho College, a B.S. in Behavioral Science from Charter Oak College, and a Masters of Instruction and Technology Integration from Drexel University. She holds a Standard Idaho Education Credential in all subjects kindergarten through eighth grade.

High-resolution version of the teacher profile photograph

The views expressed in awardee profiles are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of NSF or the PAEMST program.