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From building rain gardens to conducting animal forensics, middle and high schoolers throughout Maryland are learning science by doing science at the lab. 

鈥淚t鈥檚 unusual to see a university support this kind of outreach,鈥� Stapleton notes. 鈥淭U provides us with a solid foundation that enables us to focus on our mission of strengthening science education. These types of partnerships with K-12 education systems are critical to help prepare students for higher education.鈥�

Stapleton, who began her career as a wildlife biologist for the U.S. Peace Corps in Niger and studied bird genetics as a molecular ecologist, has translated her passion to a student-centered career.

鈥� TU provides us with a solid foundation that enables us to focus on our mission of strengthening science education. 鈥�

鈥淚 love the path I have chosen at Towson University as an informal science educator,鈥� says Stapleton. I constantly interact with K-12 science teachers, and I am always looking for novel ways to develop the science programs they need.鈥�

Each week during the school year, Stapleton, director of the TU Center for STEM Excellence, and her staff provide up to five high school and middle school classes with hands-on lab experiences at the Learning Lab. In addition, she oversees the Maryland Loaner Lab, which loans lab equipment to schools and develops, assembles and maintains different self-contained laboratory experiments that teachers can use in their own classrooms. 

鈥淎ll of our work is aligned with the Next Generation Science Standards,鈥� she notes. 鈥淥ur activities reflect the very latest ways of teaching and learning science.鈥�