Melanie Shedd Awarded the 2021 High School Chemistry Teaching Award

We would like to congratulate Melanie Shedd on receiving the High School Chemistry Teaching Award, sponsored by the St. Louis Section of the American Chemical Society. This award was created to recognize, encourage, and stimulate outstanding teachers of high school chemistry. Melanie has taught students chemistry at Principia Upper School in St. Louis, MO since 2005 and has been the department chair since 2014. She also is the Co-Chair of the St. Louis Region High School Chemistry Teachers Group (S.L.A.C.K.E.R.S.) that meets to discuss new ideas, activities, strategies, and labs in chemistry.

Mx. Shedd believes in developing future-ready students who are prepared to be change agents, effective communicators and collaborators, and innovators. Her courses reflect a balance of rigorous yet relevant material to keep the students engaged and active. She leverages project-based learning with authentic performance tasks where students can demonstrate their transfer of knowledge. Some student-driven performance tasks include: creating a soap company, developing different aquaponic and hydroponic systems to address food insecurity, testing the water quality of various local bodies of water to inform land management decisions, and creating chemistry games to teach elementary school children about the periodic table of elements.

Melanie Shedd is an excellent example of what a determined and gifted teacher is capable of in the science classroom even under the extra stresses of the current challenges. Congratulations and thank you for embodying the very spirit of this award.