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Dayton Middle School Science Teacher Mrs. Lisa Klette honored with the Amgen Award |
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By Sarah Hardee
Enquirer contributor |
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For science teacher Lisa Klette, a unit on the plant known as the perfect perennial has also turned out be a perfect lesson for her seventh-grade students.
Mrs. Klette's unit on daylilies has been a hit among students since she started the project at Dayton High School in 2007, and it's also gained her national attention, grant funding and most recently the Amgen Award for Science Teaching Excellence.
The award, which carries a $10,000 prize, was given to 34 teachers from across the nation, Puerto Rico and Canada.
"It's about teaching science but also connecting it to the real world," said Klette, who has taught science at Dayton for 14 years. "You don't have to read about it in a book ... we can get out of the classroom and play in the soil and grow something."
Klette's students not only grow daylilies, she said, they also explore concepts that range from plant structure and genetics to biotic factors. |
This unit also gives students the opportunity to grow their own daylilies, which could eventually be registered and sold on the landscape market.
Since students start the project their seventh-grade year at Dayton, they can track the progress of their daylily through their senior year.
Twin sisters Debra and Rebecca White, who are now ninth-graders, were involved in Klette's daylily project as seventh-graders when the project began.
Their daylilies are now blooming.
"It's been interesting to see them grow from start to finish," said Debra. "We were the first class to get involved with this, and I hope it continues."
Rebecca said the project was very "in-depth" and allowed students to see all that goes into horticulture.
"Students start to realize that what they're looking at is not just a plant," she said. "There's a lot of hard work and science behind it."
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Mrs. Klette and Assistant Superintendent Mrs. Patterson |
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Mrs. Klette received the Amgen Award at a ceremony May 14 in Louisville. Amgen, a developer and manufacturer of human therapeutics, has a key operating site there.
The award's $10,000 prize mostly will go toward updating Dayton High School's greenhouse and purchasing new equipment for Mrs. Klette's classroom.
Mrs. Klette has also received funding and equipment for her daylily unit through the Campbell County Cooperative Extension, the Greater Cincinnati Daylily-Hosta Society, and a Best Buy Teach Award she received in 2006.
Mrs. Klette's successful unit on daylilies stemmed from her love of the perennial. She has about 400 daylilies in her own yard.
"People always say to teach what you know and love," she said. "All your enthusiasm spills over to your students and they get excited as well." |
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