Feature

PVHS teacher recognized through Iowa S.T.E.M. award

Blake Sherman, Photo Manager • February 3, 2020

Mrs. Bildner receiving the 2020 award for her outstanding work in progress with S.T.E.M. on Jan 23

Heading into the new year comes with new awards and achievements, including the teacher Megan Bildner, who won the Iowa S.T.E.M. award this January.

Bildner has taught many different science courses over the past several years providing many students with success and knowledge, adding a personal touch in her classroom.

Bildner started the Women in S.T.E.M Club at PVHS at the beginning of the 2016-2017 school year. The achievement of receiving the award comes from many people in the process besides Bildner. “Myself, Sara Hoskins, and Jenna Aller were the ones who came up with the idea…because there were no other girls in the Intro to Engineering class,” said Bildner about how there needs to be more of a presence of women in S.T.E.M.

Bildner hopes to, specifically in these curriculums, bring attention to more females entering these fields of study in the future.

Bildner’s ideal technique for learning consists of a “push for more student centered learning. How can you make it all about what the students are doing and discovering science concepts?” These teaching techniques have been pushed for by Bildner and other women in S.T.E.M.

Jenna Aller was the other person who helped Bildner create this club for women in S.T.E.M. classes. Aller was one of the only two females enrolled in Intro to Engineering her freshman year. The lack of girls in these classes prompted Aller, Hoskins and Bildner to start the club and spread a message around the school, asking women to join the club.

Bildner has helped the club progress by helping both genders learn more about science. “Mrs. Bildner took our idea and ran with it. Since then we have grown and have over 20 people who regularly show up,” said Aller. “We have also impacted the younger kids too by hosting hour of code events, which involves volunteers to assist the kids with learning coding and exploring different online applications on early outs.”

The club plans to expand even more as the school year rolls on. It has shown an impact with the activities like the coding events during early outs, helping expose different options for younger kids to explore.

Donate to Spartan Shield

$1000

$2000

Contributed

Our Goal

Your donation will support the student journalists of Pleasant Valley High School in Bettendorf, Iowa. Your contribution will allow us to purchase needed equipment and cover our annual website hosting costs.

About the Contributors

Blake Sherman, Photo Manager

Blake Sherman, a student athlete at Pleasant Valley High School, is a fun, kind and motivated person who enjoys spending time with friends and family as well as reading the Bible. Football is Blake’s favorite sport to play, while track is his favorite sport to watch. His favorite food is chicken quesadillas. Although Blake has gone to many places for vacation with his family, his favorite place to visit is Colorado. Blake’s favorite subject in school is science, and if he were to spend a whole day with anyone of his choice it would be Isaac Newton. After high school, Blake plans to attend the University of Iowa, majoring in life sciences.

Preksha Kedilaya, News Editor

Preksha Kedilaya is a senior at Pleasant Valley High School and the current News Editor for the Spartan Shield Online. In addition to working for the Shield, one of Kedilaya's interests is singing. This year being her 6th year in the choral program, she is currently in Chamber Choir and Jazz Etc. Her biggest passion is her robotics team called Flourish & Bots that she has been involved in for the past 8 years. This team allowed her to start an organization to empower young girls in STEM through robotics year round called the Flourish & Bots Project. She is currently coaching 3 robotics teams, one of which is for kids with special needs. In the spring, Kedilaya can be found on the court playing tennis. She has played competitive tennis for the Pleasant Valley girls' tennis team all four years of high school. Kedilaya has been a member of Publications where she has written for the Spartan Shield Print for the past 2 years working as the Arts & Entertainment editor and now as a Copy Editor. She also enjoys designing pages for the yearbook. Besides these activities, as a "coffee enthusiast", she can be found working at Coffee Hound as a barista. Kedilaya will be attending the University of Iowa next fall as she plans to pursue a degree in biomedical science. She hopes to one day work as a physical therapist or a prosthetist and is excited to make a difference in the medical world.