STEPHANIE MEYER: SCIENCE, DIRT, AND BOLD MISTAKES BY K ATI E GO M U L K IE WICZ ’ 13 real to my students,” she told me as we discussed the variety of creative projects the eighth graders complete in her classroom. During the water cycle unit, Stephanie teaches her students about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch and challenges them to propose a solution for prevention or clean up. “It was so meaningful to watch the students realize, ‘I might make a difference someday.’” Stephanie loves to take science from theory to practice, using the design process to bring science to life. “When students don’t just memorize
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ince her childhood as a cornfield girl from Illinois, Stephanie Meyer has loved being outside and learning about God’s creation.
During college, her love of science was cast while studying biology and chemistry. Stephanie met her husband Shane in college as well. After graduating, Stephanie taught for four years in Illinois and Colorado before moving to the Seattle area where
scientific facts or methods but understand why, for example, you need to record or replicate data, then it becomes more than a bland method,” Stephanie shared with me. To this end, every year Earth Science students merge theoretical knowledge with practical application through the earthquake-safety building project. This group project provides a space for students to understand how their scientific
she began the next chapter and focus of her life as a mother. Over the course of eighteen years, however, Stephanie learned about a small, Christian school in the area—Bear Creek. At the time, she was not ready to jump back into teaching full-time, so she dipped her toe in the water by stepping in to substitute periodically. “Bear Creek felt like a family,” Stephanie shared with me, and when a Middle School science position became available in 2018, she applied. Back up to 1980. When Mount St. Helens erupted, Stephanie recalls buying every magazine with an article about the eruption that she could get her hands on. “I was a big National Geographic reader as a kid,” she told me, so teaching Bear Creek’s Earth Science and Engineering Design course felt like a natural fit. “I always want to make learning
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MODUS VIVENDI – Fall 2020
Stephanie (right) hiking with Bear Creek colleagues Kaley Fry and Jan White.
