Lisa Ernst models perseverance and critical thinking for her elementary students, encouraging them to persist when faced with challenges. Throughout her career, Ernst has developed project–based units that allow her students to tap into their creativity and curiosity while learning scientific and engineering principles, such as her cross–curricula  Building Bridges in Earthquake Country: From the Past to the Present unit. At a workshop during the first annual California STEM Symposium, Ernst’s students led educators through the bridges unit which spans physical and Earth science, technology, and history.

Ernst works to advance elementary science teaching through research as a co-developer with the Strategic Education Research Partnership (SERF), being a field test teacher for the Understanding Language Institute at Stanford University, as presenter at national and regional conferences, and by organizing and leading informal science programs with entities including the Exploratorium, NASA, Chabot Space and Science Center, and the Monterey Aquarium.

 “She has stood out as an educator committed to developing skills that will assure that all students have a quality science, and STEM, education,” says Jerry Valadez, director of the Central Valley Science Project.