MADISON — Dr. Lori Shrode, a science teacher at Liberty Middle School, has been chosen as an associate teacher at the 2022 Northrop Grumman Foundation Teachers Academy.

Shrode and 21 other educators across the country will focus on expanding STEM opportunities globally for students. Participants will attend the National Science Teachers Association conference in July in Chicago. During immersive placements, delegates will observe the skills of the workforce at the local Northrop Grumman facility.

Sharon Powell of the Madison City Schools Central Office told Shrode about the scholarship program, and Shrode applied. The academy’s goal is STEM literate students who value lifelong learning.

“We want our students to make cross-curricular connections and take on scientific and engineering roles,” Shrode said. “I will participate in an internship at the local Northrop Grumman factory (to) learn industry-specific skills.”

As a Teacher Fellow, Shrode will participate in a “learning community over the next year and bring what I’ve learned back to my classroom and our district.” I will promote this style of learning to other teachers through an online district forum.

“I will be a voice promoting equity in STEM access,” Shrode said. “We will create a learning community where we focus on imagination, humanity, creativity and other characteristics that make us unique as a species to meet the challenges of the future.”

In her classroom, Shrode applies her background as a genetics researcher to direct her teaching. It integrates hands-on learning with labs so that students realize how concepts exist as part of their world.

She primarily teaches life sciences in seventh grade, as well as a Project Lead the Way class, “Medical Detectives,” for students in grades 7-8. For four years, Shrode coached the Liberty Science Olympiad team for students in grades 6-9.

In his medical detective course, Shrode uses project-based learning. Students take on the roles of physician, epidemiologist, and research scientist to diagnose patients, explore the nervous system, and determine the source of a foodborne illness outbreak.

“Students like to learn through the engineering process. We all use this process to solve problems in our daily lives. We start with a problem, design a solution, test our solution, and then redesign it to make it better,” Shrode said.

“Students who love video games do it constantly. . . our goal should be to harness that love of discovery, creativity, and problem-solving when teaching STEM concepts,” Shrode said.

She was born in Huntsville but grew up in Decatur. She graduated from Decatur High School.

At Auburn University, she earned a bachelor’s degree in molecular biology. Shrode earned a doctorate in genetics from Texas A&M University. For teacher certification, she studied at the University of Alabama in Huntsville.

Early in her career, Shrode worked for the Monsanto Crop Pest Tolerance Corporation in St. Louis, Missouri, and then as a graduate research assistant at Texas A&M University in College Station.

Then she worked as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Florida in Gainesville. In Frederick, Maryland, Shrode worked for Legal and General America. Since 2017, she has been teaching grades 6 to 8 at Liberty.

Recently, Shrode and a group of teachers took 30 seventh and eighth graders to the Dauphin Island Sea Lab to observe reduced oxygen levels and dead zones in the ocean. On a research vessel, students measured oxygen levels at different depths in the gulf.

Students then brainstormed possible reasons for the reduced levels using their knowledge gained in the units about ecosystems, limiting factors and the flow of energy in the ecosystem. Their understanding of the causes led to a productive discussion about the answers to these real-world problems.

“Seeing students lead this discussion and making connections to the content is why I decided to move into teaching,” Shrode said.

For more information, visit https://www.nsta.org/northrop-grumman-foundation-teachers-academy-2022.