EMS Science department

teachers honored by Utah

Science Teachers Association

By Lyle Fletcher

Staff writer

Feb. 22, 2018

 

PROVO—Four teachers at Ephraim Middle School recently received a statewide award for their teaching efforts.

With a combined approximately 80 years of teaching science at the school, the four teachers were named the Outstanding Middle School Science Department for the State of Utah by the Utah Science Teachers Association (USTA) for the 2017-2018 school year.

The teachers—Valene Scott, Lisa Schlueter, Tim Black and Linda Flitton—traveled to Provo for the annual USTA conference and were highlighted at the USTA banquet held at the Provo Marriott Hotel on Feb. 9.

John R. Taylor, USTA president, and Todd Monson, USTA middle level state representative, gave the four science teachers the award.

Nominations for the award came from fellow teachers, administrators and district personnel, and only one middle school science department is selected each school year for the award.

These four teachers work together to create innovative and hands-on lessons “to energize and excite their students about science for their students,” states the brochure concerning their award.

For instance, their students at the middle school have created such things as models of the Earth, Sun and Moon; index-card cars with skewer axles and Lifesaver wheels; and egg-drop capsules.

Their students also have had fun learning science with hands-on labs for such things as Newton’s laws, magnetism, static electricity, rock identification and ecosystems.

Brief biographical information about each teacher is available at http://www.utsta.org (put “Ephraim” in the search box).

For instance, the bio for Black indicates he was raised in Ephraim, lives in Manti and was a troublemaker in school. “I never dreamed or even thought of being a teacher,” his bio states.

After spending years trying to figure out what he wanted to be, he eventually went to college to become a teacher. He wrote in the bio, “I realized I liked teaching people things.”

He’s worked at Ephraim Middle School for 27 years now.

Scott has taught for 17 years at the middle school, and Flitton has taught 10.

The brochure states, “Together, they have taught science for about 80 years at Ephraim Middle School.”

Thus, Schlueter’s contribution to this “about 80 years” is in the close neighborhood of a quarter of a century.

The four teachers said they appreciated support from Kent Larsen, South Sanpete School District superintendent, who also attended the banquet.