NEW YORK, NY.-A team of two Granger High School teachers are one of 50 winners of a Voya Unsung Heroes Award for innovative teaching.
Jon Kerr and Stephanie King received a $2,000 grant as part of the 2024 Unsung Heroes awards competition that recognizes K-12 educators in the United States for their innovative teaching methods, creative educational projects, and their ability to positively influence the children they teach, according to a Voya press release on the award.
Kerr and King were recognized for “To Infinity & Beyond: Hands-On STEM,” a project where students and community members will collaborate to build and install an astronomy observatory.
With the $2,000 prize Kerr and King will purchase a telescope and binoculars to use for instructional and extracurricular research, according to today’s press release.
Through the use of CCD cameras for the telescope students will be able to observe and document deep space features.
Granger’s science department will partner with the high school’s construction classes to build an observatory on campus, with the ultimate goal of providing a full observatory dome in which students engage with the scientific process and the teacher moves to a facilitator of learning, according to Voya’s press release.
Kerr and King will now compete with other finalists from around the country for one of three top prizes of $5,000, $10,000 or $25,000 from Voya Financial.
