Science Education Advocate: Chloe Glynn March 30, 2023 – Posted in: Uncategorized

Chloe Glynn, a biology and environmental science teacher at Horace Furness High School and TIP fellow, was honored with a $10,000 Pittcon Science Week Grant in 2023 that will be used for the expansion of student projects in solar and wind energy solutions.

Pittcon, an abbreviation for the Pittsburgh Conference on Analytic Chemistry and Applied Spectroscopy, has been generously contributing 90% of their annual conference fees towards supporting science education initiatives for almost 75 years, including providing grants for classroom equipment, teacher training, college scholarships, and community outreach programs.

In collaboration with PECO/Exelon and the National Energy Education Development Project, Furness High School’s 9th-grade environmental science students previously earned recognition for their hydropower energy proposal, which won the Exelon Innovation Challenge’s best project in the high school division. With the addition of the Pittcon grant, students have expanded their project to include solar and wind energy solutions, with the first phase of the project expected to be completed by June 2023.

Glynn’s passion for science education has led her to actively participate in initiatives that promote the importance of science education in today’s world. As a Fall fellow in the “How Critical Elements Make Up our Modern World” seminar organized by the Teachers Institute of Philadelphia (TIP) in 2021, she created her own curriculum unit titled  “Changing Technology for a Changing Climate: Knowledge is not always power, but power is rarely ignorant.” More recently, in Fall 2022, Glynn participated in the “Global Environmental Challenges and Potential Solutions” seminar, where she developed a deeper understanding of environmental issues and produced “Trash or Treasure? Waste as a Social Construct.”

Overall, Glynn’s dedication to science education and her involvement in TIP’s programs have allowed her to make significant contributions to her students’ learning and inspire them to take action towards creating a more sustainable future.