By David N. Young
An excited schoolteacher in the Cypress Unified School District is packing her bags (and electronic equipment) and will depart fo the Antarctica June 2 after winning a prestigious teaching fellowship on an upcoming National Geographic program explorer program.
Melinda (Mindy) Steele, a teacher currently on special assignment supporting the STEM program, recently returned from a five-day orientation program in at the National Geographic Society’s headquarters in Washington, D.C. after it was announced that her essay won her a spot on the 2019 Lindblad Expeditions and NatGeo’s Grosvenor Teaching Fellowship.
“I’m beyond excited,” said Steele on Friday, “I’m super stoked.”
Steele is one of 45 highly respected educators from the United States and Canada who will embark on global expeditions to enhance their geographic knowledge. They will have an opportunity to utilize hands-on, field-based experiences that they can bring back to share with students.
“My goal is to increase student awareness of our impact on nature, even in the most remote areas of the world,” she said, “and that simple changes made locally can help preserve our planet for generations to come.”
“Ocean plastics are a hot topic,” she admitted, and Steele expressed excitement about working with undersea specialists in the Artic to detect plastics and microplastics while facilitating an ongoing discussion of their potential impacts with students.
Steele will join the Antarctica voyage in Norway and plans to use modern technology to make her trip a truly shared moment for students who want to accompany her online.
Moreover, now that she has been named to the expedition, she is conducting a “pre-lesson” by taking early questions from the students before the expedition begins.
National Geographic’s education fellowship is a prize for any educator.
“We are immensely proud to support Grosvenor Teacher Fellows – extraordinary individuals who share our passion and commitment to inspiring the next generation of planetary stewards,” said National Geographic Society Executive Vice President and Chief Education Officer Vicki Phillips. “At the Society, we’re dedicated to providing educators with unparalleled resources and transformative experiences so they can advance students’ understanding of the world and empower them to generate solutions for a more sustainable future.”
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“I want them to feel that they can impact today’s world,” she said, adding that she will take questions from students before and throughout her voyage.
Steele will also shoot video that allows students to see what she is experiencing with a 360-degree view and she has ordered special maps so that interested students “can follow along with me.”
The Grosvenor Teacher Fellowship is named in honor of Gilbert M. Grosvenor, chairman emeritus of the National Geographic Society, in recognition of his decades-long work supporting teachers and promoting geography education. The expeditions were donated in perpetuity to the Society by Sven-Olof Lindblad and Lindblad Expeditions to honor his service to education.
According to the District, Steele has been a classroom teacher in the Cypress School District since 2005 and is currently serving as a Teacher on Special Assignment supporting the district’s STEM program.
During her 10-day expedition to Svalbard, Norway, she will observe polar bear activity, assess the presence of micro-plastics in the arctic, and learn first-hand about the impacts of tourism on nature.
Steele has pre-purchased a wi-fi signal strong enough to allow her to send dispatches back to a network of interested students.
In many ways, said Steele, students sometimes feel that the outside world “does not take them seriously.” She hopes to counter that perception by allowing them to participate in her voyage by viewing her research and suggesting things as her expedition moves along through Antarctica.
“I love the cold,” she said, adding that as part of her research, she plans to report to students the weather conditions and how they are impacting the voyage and the research.
Steele fully understands the impact and reach of the NatGeo Society and promises to make her upcoming voyage of discovery a profound “teachable moment.” Steele understands her trip has the potential to impact her students and accordingly, generations of students yet to come.
