Colony Middle teacher brings home own award

During the excitement of her students receiving the Outstanding Middle School Science Award at the 2004 Alaska Science Fair last month, Colony Middle School science teacher Dana Phillips received an award of her own: The Outstanding Science Teacher Award.

Phillips, who has been teaching at Colony for three years, says the award came as a complete surprise.

"I've been doing this a lot of years and I was very excited, "said Phillips.

Phillips began teaching at the high school in 1988; after two years she switched to teaching middle school and has never looked back.

She has been here in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough School District for seven years, she taught for four years at Houston Middle School before making the switch to Colony. One of her passions is getting students to participate in the science fair, which she has done at both Colony and Houston.

"My goal when I first got here was to get science fairs happening district wide," said Phillips. "So far it is in two schools."

"I'm doing it slowly, anyone who is interested in starting it at their school can call me."

Houston won the Outstanding Middle School Science Award last year, and Colony brought home the award for this year. Phillips taught this year's science fair class using an online program that walks students step-by-step through the science fair process, eight of her students in the program went on to compete at the state science fair. Though Colony has not yet had a school science fair, Phillips says that is the next item on her to do list.

"We just haven't had time to plan it," said Phillips, noting that the interest in a school-wide science fair is there.

Though excited about her own award, Phillips said her favorite part of this year's fair had to do with the kids participating.

"I like being with the kids, just watching them do their interviews," said Phillips. "They were impressive, I'm proud."

Contact Jen Ransom at jen.ransom@frontiersman.com