April Lanotte
NASA
NASA Headquarters, Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate
Colorado, High School Science
April Lanotte has taught many subjects in a variety of school settings for 14 years. As the only high school science teacher in rural Simla, Colorado, she has taught physics, chemistry, biology and physical science for the past four years. Incorporating her love of space science, she also began an astronautics course and a rocketry club. Before that, she taught middle school science and language arts in Colorado Springs, English Composition at Colorado State University, and humanities in El Centro, California.
Lanotte holds a B.A. in English Literature from La Roche College in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and a M.A. in English Literature with a Nonfiction Science Writing emphasis from Colorado State University. Lanotte began her teaching career as an English teacher but realized while incorporating space science and other science curriculum into her middle school language arts classes that her passion was really for science. To that end, Lanotte earned a M.S. in Science Education from the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs. She graduated from Colorado State University with distinction and received the Outstanding Graduate Student award from the Curriculum and Instruction office within the Education Department at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs.
Lanotte’s use of technology and computer simulations and programs in her classes earned her the American Vacuum Society’s Science and Technology Award in 2010. She created her district’s annual Energy Fair, has taught environmental labs and lessons to elementary classes, and has taught Energy Science in the Classroom workshops to teachers in her district and regionally for the Colorado Energy Science Center. In 2010 Lanotte has taught the workshops “Making Biodiesel in the Classroom” and “Building a Cosmic Ray Detector” at MIT, the Colorado Association of Science Teachers Conference, and the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs’ high school summer camp.
April believes that living in a small town should not limit students’ opportunities or dreams. She uses hands-on labs and activities to reach more literarily-motivated students and liberal arts techniques to reach others. In one unit she uses NASA’s Cosmic Times curriculum, fictitious newspaper accounts of real astrophysics discoveries that she edited and co-authored.
“I was once told to steer away from science because I wasn’t the fastest or brightest in my trigonometry class. Now I strive to help students who may not be seen as the top students realize that anyone can and does contribute to science.”
Lanotte is serving her fellowship at NASA Headquarters, Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate.