After 24 years of teaching, Howard H. Hathaway Elementary School second-grade teacher Karen Moore, granddaughter of Howard Hathaway, for whom the school is named, was recognized as a 2018 winner of The Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching. Nominated by her colleague, mentor and 2013 winner, Erin Escher, Ms. Moore was one of 140 individuals to be recognized by the National Science Foundation as truly excellent in her methods of teaching.

Ms. Moore will be celebrated this September as one of two Rhode Island teachers to win the award. Mr. Escher, whom continues to work as a Science Coach in the Makerspace he designed for students at Hathaway School, was a key contributor to Ms. Moore’s success by helping her collect the materials necessary to conduct an erosion experiment and submitting video footage of her second-graders hard at work to the NSF.

The experiment displayed the positive outcomes of her “co-taught model,” designed “for all students that need different support in different areas.” The program is described as “a teamwork-based collaborative and inclusive classroom” that was envisioned after years of learning from special educators and her students that “no two children are alike, and no two years are alike either.”

The model incorporates different mediums and levels of participation, allowing for students’ needs to be met at different levels. The only challenge Ms. Moore could recall is finding those mediums to revise lessons and explain or remind students of a past experience. “For that lightbulb to go off,” she said, “you have to have tricks up your sleeve for the younger students.”

The experiment began with a lesson at Sakonnet’s shoreline to observe the effects of erosion. Then the children were asked back in the Makerspace to get into teams of four and find creative ways to use netting, rocks and plants to protect a monopoly house on sand from the destructive properties of rain. By working together and being “creative little problem solvers, they learned through trial and error” what can and cannot be done to prevent erosion.

The administration Hathaway School is very supportive of the model Ms. Moore has designed for her curriculum. She said, “colleagues have been such a resource through sharing teaching styles, computer apps, smartphone apps such as ‘Seesaw’ and ‘Class Dojo’ that allow for students to upload their work to a portfolio their families and parents can have access to.” As the new school year approaches, Ms. Moore is excited to have the opportunity to share her enthusiasm and model with colleagues and her new students, because as she puts it, “the kids are my true inspiration.”

“I truly believe if a teacher is excited about what they’re about to embark on, that excitement only spreads to the kids in front of them, and I always tell them I would never give them something I didn’t think they could do,” she said.