Byron Shutz, co-president of the Lake Washington Schools Foundation (LWSF) recently presented Rose Hill Junior High teacher Bruce Bishop with the Heather Haworth Science and Math Enrichment Grant.

Haworth was a long-time math and science teacher at Redmond Junior High and her memory is honored by this enrichment fund set up by her family through the LWSF.

Bishop’s grant will pay for Vernier probeware and LabQuest to allow students to better measure, record, and see visual representations of their lab work.

Redmond Junior High teachers and former Haworth colleagues Meg Town, Trish Thomassen and Arnie Leslie attended the presentation.

Leslie said that with these tools, “kids see graphical representation in real time of what they are observing.”

Vernier LabQuest and Probeware allow students to complete more labs and shift their time to more complex analysis such as mathematical modeling. Without this equipment, much of the time-consuming lab work is spent on manual calculations and graphing, leaving less time for critical thinking and analysis.