Marie Gillespie-Story – National Stem Cell Foundation

Marie’s Big Idea: Marie worked with PocketLab Inc. to create a series of experiments that used wireless digital sensors to collect and analyze data in situations that are difficult to measure with traditional equipment. Marie and her students were able to use the PocketLab to measure data points as diverse as motion, acceleration, angular velocity, magnetic field, pressure, altitude and temperature.

Interesting Facts: In 2016, Marie and her class won a grant for a project entitled “Student Exploration in Near Space.” They launched a weather balloon equipped with a thermometer, barometer, and GPS. Read more about her project here.

Marie’s school is 100% Native American, and she strives to incorporate her students’ culture into her science lessons. Her teaching style follows research that shows effective teaching for Native American students strays from the traditional American education system by integrating a combination of inquiry and Native American cultural references.

In her own words: "My best lessons are lessons that integrate my students' Native American culture into science concepts investigating math and engineering."

Marie at the National Science Teachers Association conference in 2016

View of the Missouri River from Marie's weather balloon project. (Photo by Marie Gillespie)

On being a 2016 STEM Scholar: “What was incredible about the program was to be partnered with these amazing people from all across the United States, with so many resources and so much experience, and be able to ask questions of each other and have those connections.”