Blog Series of Stories from the Xplorlabs Educator Fellowship: Bringing Sustainability and Safety Science into the Classroom

Celebrating the Passion and Projects of Leading Changemakers in Safety Science and Sustainability Education

The Xplorlabs Educator Fellowship is more than a professional development program – it’s a launchpad for transformative learning experiences through which Fellows from across the United States bring safety science and sustainability to life in their classrooms and communities. In this first blog of our series, we introduce these Fellows who exemplify the Fellowship’s creativity and commitment.

Janet Ankrum

Janet Ankrum, a tenacious middle school educator for students in the Alhambra Elementary School District, specializes in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) subject matter. She became an Xplorlabs Educator Fellow because she wants to further her students’ agricultural photovoltaics (agriPV) work with a new curricular component - safety science!

As an educator, Anrkum strives to empower her students as young engineers and change makers by tapping into the interdisciplinary nature of authentic, real-world problems. For example, when working to improve the school’s agriPV gardens, students’ may learn about the biological mechanisms of water uptake in plants, but they might also explore physics concepts of volume, kinetic energy, and potential energy; use mathematical principles to calculate hose diameters and energy efficiency; and engage in engineering practices to test different irrigation systems – all while practicing perseverance and teamwork. Ankrum believes in the importance of such hands-on, meaningful activities in developing students’ academic and interpersonal skills, and she hopes that her incorporation of Xplorlabs resources will further promote her students’ curiosity, confidence, and safety as they continue to set the bar higher in their work.

As part of the Xplorlabs Educator Fellowship this school year (24/25), Ankrum has developed an interest in the community involvement component of Action-Oriented Pedagogies (AOPs) as an extension of the community ethnography that she already engages in with her Alhambra students. She has also become interested in lithium-ion battery safety and fire safety since learning about Xplorlabs resources pertaining to these issues. Ankrum has begun incorporating these interests into her teaching practice through students’ existing projects, and has since discovered that the areas surrounding her middle school experience a relatively high rate of fire-related incidents. She and her students are already exploring ways to investigate and address this safety concern in collaboration with community members in the future.

The Xplorlabs Educator Fellowship team is ecstatic to have Janet Ankrum on board this school year, and we look forward to the work she’ll do as we move forward into 2025!

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Melany Coates

Melany Coates, a passionate and innovative Arizona educator for ninth-grade students in the Sunnyside Unified School District, specializes in science and engineering subjects. With over thirteen years of experience teaching in urban public schools, Coates became an Xplorlabs Educator Fellow out of her dedication to student exploration of real-world phenomena and building students’ confidence in their STEM identities.

As an educator, Coates sees value in activities that prompt students to think critically and express their thoughts on topics that affect their lives, which she uses to facilitate content learning. For instance, after the COVID-19 school closures, her students explored the career field of epidemiology by researching viral outbreaks, learned about the biological structure of different types of viruses, and examined viral transmission through an evolutionary lens. Currently, she and her students are exploring climate change, natural resources, and the food-water-energy nexus through agricultural photovoltaics (agriPV), and she hopes that her participation in the Xplorlabs Fellowship will provide her with additional resources with which to engage her students in real-world issues.

As part of the Xplorlabs Educator Fellowship this school year (24/25), Coates has developed a deeper interest in agriPV and developed a new interest in the Xplorlabs resources that explore lithium-ion battery supply chains, which her students identified as a major problem they would like to investigate. From their exploration of these topics, Coates and her students have also become interested in thermal runaway and fire safety, concepts that intersect with lithium-ion battery use. She plans on facilitating students’ design of evidence-based solutions for fire vulnerable areas in their community, and to expand her curriculum to further engage students in collaborative problem-solving and action that connects science, engineering, and societal impact.

The Xplorlabs Educator Fellowship team is thrilled to have Melany Coates on board and looks forward to the inspiring work she will do as we move into 2025 and beyond.

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Jasmine Coleman

Jasmine Coleman, a constantly growing Arizona educator for high school students at the Maricopa Institute of Technology (MIT), specializes in physical and earth sciences with STEM integration. She became an Xplorlabs Educator Fellow out of her desire to inspire curiosity and make science more tangible for her students. She believes that the Xplorabs Educator Fellowship will provide her with opportunities to further these goals through collaboration with passionate and like-minded educators nationwide.

As an educator, Coleman leverages the 5E framework, debate and discussion, and the incorporation of socio-scientific issues in her classroom to foster critical thinking, empathy, and global citizenship among her students. For instance, when teaching about environmental science in her chemistry class, students are not merely lectured on the dangers of chemical pollutants in the environment; instead, they apply their lab skills to collect and analyze samples from local bodies of water, and then exercise their engineering skills by proposing solutions to mitigate the very real chemical hazards that they uncover. As an Xplorlabs Fellow, Coleman hopes to gain more confidence in her experiential and action-oriented approach to teaching by developing ways to better measure success for these interdisciplinary learning experiences.

As part of the Xplorlabs Educator Fellowship this school year (24/25), Coleman has developed an interest in action-oriented pedagogies (AOPs) as a means to address scientific, social, and ethical dimensions of her course content. Currently, her students are investigating Xplorlabs: The Science of Extraction to E-Waste, specifically the trade-offs of resource extraction, an experience that will end with students running an educational social media campaign to teach others about their learnings.

The Xplorlabs Educator Fellowship team is ecstatic that Coleman joined the program this school year, especially given that she was also completing her master’s degree throughout Fall 2024! To see what new projects Coleman is working on, feel free to check out her Linktree page or her website, where she’s sure to document her impactful work as a new Master of Education.