I quickly discovered that endless days alone behind the bench in a chemistry lab were not as rewarding for me as educating others. Teaching had been what I looked forward to every day.”
Kate’s Story
Kate Markiewicz dates her love affair with physical sciences to eighth grade when her class used chemistry and physics experiments to test multiple product brands during a “Consumer Reports” unit. Her participation in Science Olympiad strengthened her desire to pursue a career in science.
Kate graduated with a BA in chemistry and physics from Kalamazoo College and was certain that she wanted to be a research scientist. She studied ion-selective electrodes in Kalamazoo, modeled solar coronal loops at the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, DC, and worked with graduate students in a chemistry lab in Erlangen, Germany.
After graduation, Kate moved to Boston to pursue graduate work in chemistry at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). During her first year there, Kate worked as a teaching assistant. “Working with students was extremely rewarding and was what I enjoyed most.” Kate left MIT to work as a substitute teacher in the Boston Public School System and as head coach for the Boston Latin School Science Olympiad team. “I discovered that high school students were a lot of fun.”
Kate completed her master’s degree in education through the Boston Teacher Residency and UMass-Boston and began teaching full time at Boston Latin School in 2007. Kate has presented the results of her teacher research at the 2008, 2009 and 2010 National NSTA Conferences in Boston, New Orleans and Philadelphia, respectively.
