Glenkirk’s Gina Townsend tapped as PWC Science Teacher of the Year

Prince William County Schools honored Gina Townsend, a fifth grade teacher at Glenkirk Elementary School, with the prestigious Science Teacher of the Year Award for 2012. Jason Calhoon, PWCS Supervisor of Science and Family Life Education, surprised Townsend at the school during the graduation practice for fifth graders. Many were not surprised, however, because she is known throughout the school as a teacher who instills the love of science in her students.

Townsend earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. After being a stay at home mom for ten years and volunteering at her daughters’ schools, she soon realized how much she loved teaching students. She shared, “I felt as a teacher I could do so much more.” She went on to earn a Masters in Education at Regis University in Colorado Springs, CO.

In 2007, she joined the staff at Glenkirk Elementary School. She taught third grade for two years and is completing her third year in fifth grade.  She brought with her the Science Olympiad Program. Its mission is one that is near and dear to Townsend’s heart as she introduces new science concepts to her students. This program’s mission statement says, “Science Olympiad is a national non-profit organization dedicated to improving the quality of K-12 science education, increasing male, female and minority interest in science, creating a technologically-literate workforce and providing recognition for outstanding achievement by both students and teachers.”

Townsend encourages her students to explain why they believe something in science class and prove it.  “I also want my students to be responsible for their own learning and at times I will let a student plan and run a lesson with me. I want them to have a real love of asking questions and to want to learn more. They know I want them to show evidence of the conclusions they come up with. I tell them I am always learning, and we can do it together by exploring,” said Townsend.

She is constantly growing professionally and attended the prestigious Mickelson Exxon Mobil Teachers Academy in 2010. In 2011, she attended VISTA [Virginia Initiative for Science Teaching and Achievement] program at George Mason University.  The first weeks of summer vacation she attended again this year–teaching teachers the first two weeks and then students the following two weeks. “The program is a Problem Based Learning one and last year I created one on Oceanography. This year I will create another PBL and hope to make one each year. I will share what I do with my team at Glenkirk,” explained Townsend.

Lisa Gilkerson, Glenkirk’s principal, in her nomination, shared, “Gina Townsend is our Science Lighthouse at Glenkirk. She excels in science hands-on inquiry, literacy and differentiation. Through VISTA she learned more about problem-based learning and in turn her students learned by solving problems with multiple solutions just like scientists do in the real world. Gina Townsend led our initiative for a Saturday field trip for the Sally Ride Institute that was held at George Mason University to expose girls to the joys of science. She strives to build the under represented populations in science through the engagement in all things science. She leads our Science Fair committee and is the Science Olympiad chairperson. All of these activities are above and beyond what takes place in her science instruction in the classroom.”

Gilkerson added, “She has a classroom with an ESOL cluster, and she has found the way to build their language by the excitement she sees in their participation in science. They excel because science is a universal language that Mrs. Townsend has used to make her students highly engaged and scientifically competent. They record in a science notebook and as one student said, ‘I used to not care about science so much, but the way Mrs. Townsend makes it so interactive makes me pay more attention. Now I love it.’ Mrs. Townsend is that special teacher who has helped us build our capacity for developing the next generation of scientists.”

One of her students, Madeleine Burneskis, shared, “I’ve learned to think about questions in many different ways. I also learned to enrich my work and make it extremely detailed. We were able to dig deeper while we were thinking, and then became able to make presentations to the class that really made us proud.”

Townsend summed up her feelings, saying, ” You live by the opportunities you give others. You reinvigorate yourself by not how much you’ve done for yourself, but by how much you’ve given to other people.” 

Townsend has also instilled in her own three daughters the love of learning. Her eldest daughter is a teacher at Coles Elementary. Her middle daughter is a senior at Battlefield High School. The youngest is a sixth grader, who will be starting at Gainesville Middle School in September. Her husband is in Afghanistan, but will be home soon for some rest and relaxation. She hopes after VISTA they will be able to go to the beach. You can be sure she will be on the lookout for items she can incorporate into her teaching.