Noyce Scholar Profile
Madeline Clements
Undergraduate major or graduate field of study: Biology Teaching Track
Subject area(s) and grade level teaching focus: Biology, grades 9-12
Category of scholarship/fellowship:
Fifth year or post-baccalaureate Noyce scholar
Name of Noyce institution:
University of La Verne
Current academic or teaching status:
5th year in school
School and school district:
NATSC 350, Field experience at Alta Loma High School, Claremont High School, and Chino Hills High School
Background:
I am a recent graduate from the University of La Verne as a Biology Teaching Track major. I was a teaching assistant for a Research Methods, Biostatistics, Animal Biology, and Human Anatomy. Through these teaching assistant positions, I have been able to help teach the students new ways to research their main topic of study for their senior projects, as well as edit their papers to give myself and the students, a better paper as well as more experience with science writing. My senior thesis was the foundations to an online lab resource for the Animal Biology course at the University of La Verne, which required me to work with the Animal Biology students to find out what they thought would be helpful as study material for the lab inorder to retain the material better/longer.
Why do you want to teach:
I want to teach because I like the feeling of helping others understand something that they would not be able to figure out on their own. I also want to teach to try and spread the joy I find in the Biology field to younger generations. By teaching, I think/hope I will be able to help make science more interesting to students who previously were not very interested in the sciences and whose goal was just to get out of the class.
Describe a memorable teaching experience:
Over the past few summers, I worked for the STEM Science Camp at the University of La Verne. Working in the lab with some of the high school students stands out in my mind because I was able to see how they think, which gave me a good idea what teaching was going to be like later in my life. This stands out because we were able to teach the students one-on-one as well as a whole group to see how the students interacted with us, versus how they interacted with each other. One summer, I was also a Resident Assistant during the STEM summer camp, where I was able to get a better idea of how the students act not only in class and lab, but also away from class (which allowed me to see every angle of high school student mind processes).
What does the Noyce program mean to you:
The Noyce program has meant a lot to me in many ways. The main reason is that I want to become a high school teacher, and this program allows me to continue my education and reach my goal by helping me pay for schooling that I otherwise might not have been able to afford. The Noyce program has also provided me with a sense of security that I will have people to back me up when I am trying to find a job as a teacher. Even if things do not go well in the beginning, I feel that I will have the support to continue the path to become a teacher.
