Garden City High School science research teacher, Steven Gordon, was selected as one of 200 teachers nationwide to meet with the Regeneron Science Talent Search organizers and research teachers at Regeneron’s Science Research Teachers Conference in Washington, D.C. on Sept. 30 through Oct. 2. The conference was co-sponsored by the Society for Science & the Public.
The Regeneron Science Talent Search (Regeneron STS), formerly known as the Intel STS, is the nation’s most prestigious science research competition for high school seniors. Since 1942, first in partnership with Westinghouse, then with Intel from 1998-2016, and now with Regeneron, the STS has served as the national stage for the country’s best and brightest young scientists to present original research to nationally recognized professional scientists.
Gordon was also an invited guest of the Northeast Regional Conference of the Association for Science Teacher Education on Oct. 13 at the Regeneron Corporation, a global biotechnology company, based in Tarrytown, NY. The event began with introductory remarks by George Yancopoulos, co-founder of Regeneron, during which he listed all of his science teachers from K-12 and thanked them. Gordon attended breakout sessions with Regeneron scientists working in fields such as cardiovascular research, neuroscience, and genetics. The researchers explained that there were laboratory mentorship programs for high school and undergraduate students, STEM teachers, and postdoctoral Fellows.
Gordon was selected for a Regeneron STEM internship at the Regeneron Corporation. He will be attending a two-week mentorship program over the summer of 2017 at Regeneron co-sponsored by the NASA Endeavor STEM Teaching Certificate Program and the STEM Leadership Center. The mentorship will focus on experimental design, statistics, data presentation, and building research partnerships. As the new sponsor of the Science Talent Search, Regeneron has committed over $100 million dollars to STEM education.
“I am so grateful that I was selected to attend because it was very important, actually essential, training for running and planning the future of research programs,” shared Gordon.
“It will be great for our research students,” added Elena Cascio, coordinator of the district’s grades 6-12 science program.
