Arlene Laurison
The Sacramento Section of the American Chemical Society (ACS) is pleased to announce that Arlene Laurison won the Janan Hayes High School Teacher Award (HSTA) for 2018. Ms. Laurison teaches at Sheldon High School.
Ms. Laurison wins a $500 cash prize and $500 for classroom supplies. Additionally, she will be honored at the Sacramento Section’s awards ceremony on September 29th, 2018 that is part of the section’s “Flavors of Chemistry” event.
Ms. Laurison was chosen to recognize her experience in chemistry, teaching, and leadership.
She holds a B.A. in Chemistry from CSU Fresno and a M.S. in Chemistry from CSU Sacramento. She worked in industry for 10 years performing Gas Chromatography and High-Performance Liquid Chromatography analyses. She also managed and trained others in these analyses and served as a Chemical Hygiene Officer.
Her teaching ability is reflected in her being chosen as the “Most Influential Teacher” at Sheldon High School (SHS) seven times in 18 years. As one of her recommenders comments, “She understands differentiation better than most people. … Her knowledge of reading strategies enables her to appropriately connect students to the textual content. [Her] practical experience … as a chemist has prepared her to augment the curricula with real world, relevant examples of chemistry’s societal applications.”
She currently holds leadership positions on the Elk Grove United School District’s Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) Transition Team and in the Noyce Sacramento Math and Science Teacher Leaders (SacMAST-L) program. Both of these positions allow Ms. Laurison to “teach the teachers.” She will be co-leading a workshop called “Sense-making with the activity series” at the Super Science in the River Series (SIRC) on May 19, 2018.
Ms. Laurison won this award over a strong pool of applicants. Thanks to all of those who applied. The other candidates’ applications roll over for three years after they are initially submitted with a chance to update the application each year.
Previous winners have included James Hill and Steven Hummel.
The Sacramento Section of the American Chemical Society is very proud to support high school teachers in the Sacramento area.
