Joan Christen Winner of 2004 Christa McAuliffe Prize

Lincoln, Neb., Jan. 20, 2004 -- Fourteen years ago, a spinal specialist examined X-rays of Joan Christen's back and gave the Tecumseh resident a choice: "Do you want to walk or do you want to continue to be an upholsterer?"

Christen said the decision to get out of the upholstering business was easy. It was deciding what to do next that was terrifying. At the age of 38, with no previous college experience, she enrolled in two summer classes at Peru State College. To her surprise, she found that she took to higher education like a duck takes to water and went on to graduate from Peru State in 1996 with a perfect 4.0 grade-point average and a bachelor of science in education degree in natural sciences, with endorsements in chemistry and mathematics. She became one of the first to complete a master of science degree in entomology from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (2001) via distance education and began a Ph.D. program at UNL last summer.

She also became an outstanding science teacher at Southeast Nebraska Consolidated School in Stella for seven years before moving to Beatrice High School in 2003. For her accomplishments as a teacher, she will be honored by UNL's College of Education and Human Sciences with the college's 2004 Christa McAuliffe Prize on Jan. 25.

The prize is awarded annually to a Nebraska elementary- or secondary-school teacher in memory of McAuliffe, the teacher-astronaut who perished in the explosion of the Space Shuttle Challenger on Jan. 28, 1986. Christen will be honored at a banquet at the Nebraska Union and will receive a $1,000 stipend and a specially designed plaque. Judy Strate, secondary science teacher at Ravenna High School, will receive a Special Recognition award.

In her last five years at Southeast Nebraska Consolidated, Christen wrote and received funding for more than $1 million in grants involving science and technology at a school that enrolled just 66 high school students in 2002-03.

Michael Montgomery, Christen's superintendent at Southeast, said implementation of the grants required long hours spent before and after school while teaching a full load of classes. In his letter nominating Christen for the McAuliffe Award, Montgomery said her creativity as a teacher is outstanding.

"One of her projects was the development of an intensive DNA unit for her advanced biology students," Montgomery wrote. "Although she had extensive experience with the subject herself, she brought in a retired molecular geneticist who lives in our district to add a deeper dimension to the experience. The unit involved hands-on training of gel electrophoresis equipment and colony transformation techniques used to alter bacterial DNA, the use of computerized DNA data banks, and culminated with the analysis of the DNA taken from each student's cheek cells. The DNA was amplified using polymerase chain reaction equipment. The students were totally immersed in one of the hottest topics in science today. Additional discussion of the ethics of genetic engineering prepared the students to make knowledgeable decisions based on fact rather than fear in the future."

In evaluating the students' understanding of the subject, Christen bypassed traditional testing methods and instead had each student create a computerized PowerPoint presentation explaining the process they had learned. Montgomery said the students were not overwhelmed by the project, nor were students scared away by the depth with which Christen teaches science. Instead, he said, the response was quite the opposite.

"Our school requires three years of science to fulfill graduation requirements," he wrote. "For the past two years we have had students taking four, five, six, seven (years) and even three students who managed to take eight years of science during their high school careers. We have been averaging 50 to 60 percent of the students taking advanced science classes -- that is more than double of the state and national average. This has become the norm for our science program. This is a tribute to the motivation to learn about science and technology that Mrs. Christen has inspired within her students."

To view or download a color JPEG image of Joan Christen go to this link.

The McAuliffe Prize was established in 1987 by the former Teachers College at UNL and is independent of any other awards that have been established in McAuliffe's name. Last year, Teachers College merged with the former College of Human Resources and Family Sciences to create the College of Education and Human Sciences.

CONTACT: Jenny Patrick, Dean's Office, Education & Human Sciences, (402) 472-5400