Lindsay Knippenberg
NOAA
Office of Education
Michigan – Grades 9-12, Biology and Environmental Science
Knippenberg has lived in the great state of Michigan her entire life. She began her journey towards becoming a teacher at Michigan State University, where she earned her BS in Biological Sciences through the Lyman Briggs School. She then continued her education at the University of Michigan-Dearborn, where she earned her MS in Environmental Science as an honors scholar. Scientific research has been a prominent facet in her education. As she pursued her degrees, she worked on research teams studying everything from seals in Alaska to plant genomics in a university laboratory.
Knippenberg has been teaching Biology and Environmental Science at South Lake High School just north of the city of Detroit in St. Clair Shores, MI for the past seven years. Besides her teaching responsibilities, she also advises her school’s environmental club and Envirothon team. She is passionate about the environment and the ‘no kid left inside’ philosophy. To instill a love for the environment in her students, she has helped her students to develop several community service projects aimed at improving water quality in nearby Lake St. Clair. In 2008 her students were awarded the Sea World/Busch Gardens/Fuji Film National Environmental Excellence Award for their lake-safe fertilizer sticker outreach project.
From her past experiences working within the scientific research community, Knippenberg has been inspired to bring current science and data into the classroom to make learning more meaningful to her students. In October of 2009, Knippenberg traveled to Antarctica as a part of the PolarTREC program. While in Antarctica, she worked alongside a team of researchers studying microorganisms living deep within a glacier in the McMurdo Dry Valleys. Her experience inspired her students to be more engaged in class and want to pursue careers in the sciences. Knippenberg hopes to use her fellowship with NOAA to help link more researchers to teachers and bring current science to the classroom to inspire students across the nation to become our future scientists.
Knippenberg is serving her second fellowship year at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Office of Education.