Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, May 24, 1994 TAG: 9405240046
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: MELISSA DeVAUGHN
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Age: 46
Family: husband, John; two grown children, John Peter and Amy.
Education: bachelor's degree from the University of Minnesota, master's degree from Virginia Tech
Awards and honors: six grants from Montgomery County Public Schools; two grants from the Virginia Commission for the Arts; two Eisenhower grants; a NASA grant called "Mission 21," the results of which received the Virginia Public Education Network Award for Early Childhood Education in 1993.
Hobbies: fishing, hiking, canoeing, knitting, reading and an avid Blacksburg Electronic Village user.
Enter Catherine Ney's classroom on an average day and you'll find the pupils learning about things most students don't cover until middle school: the history of the wheel, and its importance in the Westward Movement of the early 1800s; continental drift and "Bernouilli's Principle" and how it applies to building hang gliders.
Pupils work together to understand these difficult concepts and that's how Ney likes it. She has learned that there is strength in numbers and what children used to learn later in school, they can now handle together.
"At this age, it's much more appropriate to do problem solving, because as [the children] solve one problem it leads to another," she said. "It's not the solution that's important but the problem solving."
Ney has made great strides in teaching difficult science and technology concepts to little children and her work has not gone unnoticed. She recently traveled to Kansas City, Mo., to accept the International Technology Education Association Program's Excellence Award on behalf of the school. Beeks was one of only six schools to receive the national technology award.
"The [award] is a wonderful way to recognize technology in our school," she said. "Studies have shown that unless children are exposed to [technology] early, they may not choose it later on. They may think jobs like engineering and high technology careers are not an option."
Ney said that through cooperative team teaching with the other second-grade teachers she has been able to integrate the science technology throughout all aspects of teaching. Almost every project she embarks upon with her pupils includes social studies, reading, writing, science, math, art, and even health, physical education and music.
One project the pupils worked on evolved naturally from a book they read on the Alaskan sled dog race, the Iditarod.
"We were reading about the Iditarod," 8-year-old Oliver Chapman said. "And we thought it would be kind of cool to do our own dog race, so Mrs. Ney said we could." That project was completed through the creative minds of the pupils, working together.
"Mrs. Ney lets us design our own things," said Ella Camburnbeck, 8, whose favorite project this year has been to design and build an edible gingerbread house. "In first grade, when we did things, we kind of had to do it a certain way, but in Mrs. Ney's class we get to do it however we want."
Ney is one of three elementary teachers up for the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science. If she is chosen, she will meet President Clinton and spend a week in Washington. That award, she said, would be the highlight of her career.
n"Our Schools' Finest" recognizes the contributions of area educators.
Keywords:
PROFILE
by CNB