Sherry Carpenter Receives STEM Award
RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, NC –Sherry Carpenter has received an excellence in informal science education award from the North Carolina Science, Mathematics, and Technology Center. The SMT Center awarded Ms. Carpenter at its annual SMT Celebration gala on April 18.
Sherry Carpenter serves as the Cape Fear Botanical Garden’s Naturalist and Education Coordinator. She is responsible for creating and coordinating programs that reach both public and nonpublic school students and adults. Programs range from field trip opportunities, which are based on curricula aligned to the essential standards for science, to summer camps. In the summer of 2014, Sherry coordinated with a community organization to offer a summer camp experience that allowed at-risk youth to learn about and experience an urban forest.
Sherry was also instrumental in securing a grant that allowed 700 youth to take a field trip to the garden in fall 2014 and learn about vermicology and vermicomposting, as well as participate in Nature Discovery Hikes that prompted conversations about life cycles and dendrology. All told, the educational programs at the garden reach roughly 4,900 students annually.
The N.C. Science, Mathematics, and Technology (SMT) Center is focused on improving education as a means of providing all students in North Carolina with the knowledge and skills to have successful careers, be good citizens, and advance the economy of the state. Promoting innovation and change in education, the SMT Center celebrates educational excellence in North Carolina by supporting educators, engaging students, and advancing the growing importance of having a STEM-educated workforce.
The SMT Center also believes that STEM is more than Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. It’s Strategies That Engage Minds® through hands-on, active involvement in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education that promotes essential cognitive skills for the 21st century.
Each year the North Carolina Science, Mathematics, and Technology Education Center (SMT Center) offers awards that recognize individuals and organizations whose extraordinary contributions to science, mathematics, and technology (SMT) education in North Carolina are helping to advance the mission of the SMT Center.
CONTACT: Lisa Rhoades at 919/991-5111 or lrhoades@bwfund.org