Noyce Scholar Profile
Erin McCuin
Undergraduate major or graduate field of study: Biology
Subject area(s) and grade level teaching focus: Science
Category of scholarship/fellowship:
Fifth year or post-baccalaureate Noyce scholar
Name of Noyce institution:
UVM
School and school district:
ANESU
Background:
I always thought I would be a teacher and over the years have worked to refine that thought. I graduated college having taught children in Belize and in a local elementary school near my college, but I was still not ready to enter the real world. I pursued my passions (working on a vegetable/produce farm, gardening, saving money so I could go travel in Europe for 8 months, working on a educational dairy farm) until I finally decided I definitely wanted to teach. That was when I applied for Graduate School at UVM to pursue secondary science education. It was a great decision.
Why do you want to teach:
Everyone seems to talk about future generations with hope and tenderness. But unless young people know what obstacles they might face in the future, or what they are good at or what they care passionately about or how to ask good questions of others, how will they be able to solve problems and think critically? Science is just a medium, like any other subject, to help young people develop into compassionate and passionate citizens.
Describe a memorable teaching experience:
I had a student tell me, after teaching a lesson about GMOs, that she was really glad we had done that because she had “no clue” there was anything like GMOs. I felt very rewarded to know that I had given her an opportunity to widen her lens as a consumer.
What does the Noyce program mean to you:
Being a part of this program has given me the opportunity to widen my lens for how I will teach science. I have been able to learn from other teachers how they effectively engage students in real science, as opposed to school science.
