Mi-STAR teacher named Middle School Teacher of the Year

Mi-STAR teacher Jennifer Pera has been honored with the 2022 Middle School Science Teacher of the Year Award by the Michigan Science Teachers Association (MSTA). The award recognizes statewide excellence in science education and honors educators making a positive impact in the classroom and in the school district.

Pera is a Mi-STAR professional learning facilitator and teaches eighth grade science at Jeffers High School, in Painesdale. In this video, she receives the award from Michigan Tech Provost Jackie Huntoon, the principal investigator of the Mi-STAR project and a MSTA board member.

An article on Pera’s achievements, “High Marks: Jeffers Teacher Wins Science Honor,” was published Tuesday, March 1, in the (Houghton) Daily Mining Gazette. Written by staff writer Garrett Neese, the article discusses Pera’s classroom evolution from the lecture-lab model to adoption of the student-driven Mi-STAR curriculum. “That’s really exciting for me when I see [students] actually engaged in making sense of the world as opposed to just memorizing stuff and spitting it back at me and then forgetting it a week later,” she said.