Stacey Zaback

Monmouth, OR | 7-12, Science, 2023

Stacey Zaback Portrait Photo

What motivates you to contribute to excellence in STEM teaching?

I have a deep desire to help all students learn to solve complex problems, innovate creative solutions, and collaborate to build and iterate those solutions. I also strive to teach applicable and transferable skills that students will need in their future.

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

I recently took four teams of students to an Artemis III NASA challenge sponsored by the Northwest Earth and Space Science Pathways program. Students worked together to design, build, and code robots to explore lava tubes. Teams also explored growing food in space using our classroom hydroponics units, and they designed and built water filtration systems. At the end of the challenges, my students were justifiably proud of their work and innovations. One of my students' parent reported to me that the student had started researching MIT as a university path.

Biography

Stacey Zaback teaches sixth, seventh, and eighth-grade science as well as art, robotics, and STEAM electives at Luckiamute Valley Charter School (LVCS). She also volunteers her lunch hours to run the Girls Who Code club. Before LVCS, she was a fifth-grade multi-subject teacher and high school art teacher at Kings Valley Charter School. Before that, Stacey was a fifth-grade teacher at Good Samaritan School. A desire to help all students learn to solve complex problems stretches to Stacey’s work with the International Expressions of Kindness as a pilot teacher, co-creator, and curricula presenter. She also participated as a Clean Energy Fellow with Bonneville Environmental Foundation (BEF). Stacey led students through activities and lessons about renewable energy, then presented to colleagues in her cohort and beyond. Stacey taught a Ukrainian teacher delegation on how to use online tools more effectively during the war in a "train the trainers" workshop at Oregon State University. This opportunity led her to gather donations of Finchbots, Micro:bits, books, and clean energy kits from BEF to send to teachers in Ukraine. Stacey has led her students to successfully participate in the World Peace Game, Artemis II and III through Northwest Earth Space Science Pathways, and she is participating with a team of teachers in the Farm to School Program. Stacey is a member of the Oregon Science Teachers Association and the National Science Teaching Association. Stacey holds a B.S. in both Liberal Studies and Education from Oregon State University and a Master of Science in Science Education from Montana State University. She is licensed to teach middle school science, kindergarten through sixth-grade multi-subjects, and art K-12.

High-resolution version of the teacher profile photograph

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