The Presidential Awards for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching (PAEMST) is the highest recognition that a kindergarten through 12th grade science, technology, engineering, or mathematics teacher may receive for outstanding teaching in the United States. Up to 110 teachers are recognized each year.

The PAEMST awardees receives a $10,000 award, a citation signed by the president and a visit to the White House. Six Pennsylvania teachers have been recognized for their dedication to STEM education.

On January 6 episode of The Spark, Jeremy Tomaszewski, Melissa Costantino-Poruben, Dylan Fedell, and Jeff Remington shared what this award meant to them, and how we can better support educators in today’s society.

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The Susquehanna Art Museum is a non-collecting art museum. They also have multiple shows, and world class art that travel through Harrisburg.

“We're located in Midtown, in the new Harrisburg Arts Corridor, and we are near the Broad Street Market and the Midtown Scholar. We are, as a non-collecting entity, we're always bringing something new, lots of something new, “said Alice Anne Schwab, Executive Director of the Susquehanna Art Museum.

There are two exhibits that are opening on February 6.

“One is called Wall Power. It's spectacular quilts from the American Folk Art Museum, which is located in New York City. We are bringing that show to Harrisburg. Additionally, we are bringing a show called There, like T -H -E -R -E, by Jordan Nasser, who is an artist who is really making quite a name for himself. He works in embroidery. He does cross -stitch, which sounds not necessarily like what you would think of as a major New York artist. He is Palestinian by his heritage, but he is actually making cross -stitch pieces using the skills and talents of some people who are living in Hebron, living in the Middle East, and he brings that sense of community together with a community building of embroidery. We have one piece that is 20 feet long. Think of that, an embroidery that's 20 feet long, “said Schwab.

The exhibit will be available at the museum until May 11. According to Rachel Barron, Director of Education at the Susquehanna Art Museum, art education is important.

“I believe that arts education is crucial for a well-rounded education. I often like to boil it down to creative problem-solving skills. Creating art really means constantly asking yourself questions and searching for solutions. And art also connects to so many other topics and subjects. For example, with Wall Power, the exciting quilt exhibition that we have opening today. The kids are going to be able to connect the quilts with geometry, with symmetrical, and pattern. And they're also going to have the opportunity to learn about Pennsylvania history, as well as local history, “said Barron.

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Each service plaza along the Pennsylvania Turnpike now contains a mural depicting landscapes and attractions in their areas. The murals were created by local high school students under a program called Art Sparks, a joint effort of the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts and the Turnpike Commission.

Mark Compton, CEO of the Turnpike Commission, says they want to make the service plazas more welcoming to visitors.

“As we see it, about 550 ,000 travelers use this system every day and very few ever get off the system other than where their destination is. So, we wanted to make sure that some of the beautiful places around the Turnpike were able to be viewed from the service plaza, and that really was why we did what we did.”

Jamie Dunlap of the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts says this project had a huge impact on the students.

“It's given them a chance to be a part of the creation of public art that is community driven and to work with a professional artist and to have that experience and to work with a client to then have amazing artwork produced at the end that is installed.”

Dana Attivo is an art teacher on the very first mural project. The project took a few years, however, it brought the students together while creating the mural.

“It's been quite a few years since we've done this, but we were super excited to participate, and one of the things that, speaking of the benefits that I noticed in my classroom is that group specifically, we had some small groups. We had a couple of friend groups that would come in and hang out with each other, and most of them were juniors that were working on the project. And by their senior year, it created such a different, tight -knit community in our classroom, because they all had to work together with each other. They weren't just coming in and doing their own thing. So we really loved the opportunity to put some work out into our community. We really loved the community that it created in our own classroom, and we loved the opportunity to work with a professional artist.”

Katie Trainer and her students were the final group to create their murals. Trainers believe it forced her students to learn about local landscapes in their religion.

“So getting them involved with the design, like what's important to you guys? You can't like at first all the students seem to be hesitant, like, oh, what do you mean Shippensburg is important? And it's like, well, no, it's what's like good. What's the value of your heritage or your town? What are some of the iconic buildings or what do you guys like to do? And so, getting them invested in the community aspect is always a very big deal. And from there, I can kind of find the common themes of what they've chosen to express and merge them together, figure out how it makes sense and then get painting.”

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The National Civil War Museum in Harrisburg will have a few programs to offer the public for the month of February. On Presidents Day, they will have actor James Haney, who will portray Abraham Lincoln.

“He is going to be talking about Abraham Lincoln battle with slavery and how he got to the 13th Amendment, “said Jeffrey Nicholas, CEO of the National Civil War Museum.

Haney, will present Lincoln’s Battle with Slavery.

“It was a long journey from his early days in his life to that point. And he was quite often anti slavery, which means he was against slavery, but not necessarily an abolitionist, not someone who was on the forefront. His views changed over time. Heaven, forbid he grew as a person. And so, Mr. Haney will be here on President's Day talking about that progression that he made. And on President's Day, admission will be reduced to be ten dollars for adults and all kids who are home from school that day will be free.”

On Wednesday February 20th at 7 p.m., Jefferey Nicholas will interview Dr. Jonathan Lande about his new book Freedom Soldiers: The Emancipation of Black Soldiers during the Civil War.

“this tells the story of those USCT troops like Ephraim, who joined the U .S. Army to fight for their freedom and how they reacted to that. In some cases, as I have just started reading the book, you can imagine that some of these recently freed people in the South had escaped their plantation. But their wife or their children might be at another plantation as they were sold apart at some point. And so, they worked very hard to try to find their families. As we all can relate to. And even when they did and they were forced and they joined the army, some of them left, went AWOL, as it were, to go see their family, to protect their family and what those consequences were. It’s a very fascinating story. And part of that great research that's going on now about these American heroes who gained their own freedom and then help protect ours.”

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The City of Johnstown has very rich immigrant and industrial history. Shelley Johansson, Director of Marketing and Communications of the Heritage Discovery Center says the building was built in 1903.

“It was built as a brewery in 1903. Of course, we all know what happened to breweries very quickly after that. Prohibition came along, and they were not breweries, and basically it became several other things until my organization bought it. The first phase of the exhibit opened with America through immigrant eyes. If early industrial America is your story, and it is, it's an amazing building to have. It tells a story of what it was like to be an immigrant coming to this area around the turn of the last century. It's kind of a national story told in a local context, because that is the period of great immigration from Europe.”

The first-floor exhibit of the Frank & Sylvia Pasquerilla Heritage Discovery Center, America: Through Immigrant Eyes, tells a national story in local context.

“The exhibition focuses on telling the story. When you come to the exhibit, you get to choose one of eight immigrant cards that has a different nationality, an age, and a gender. This is a young Polish boy. This is an innate. At different points in the exhibit, you plug the card into the exhibit, and the exhibit talks to you as though you were that character. It kind of puts you in an experiential position to learn what happened. The other thing about this building that I failed to mention, it is located in Cambria City, which was Johnstown's most important immigrant neighborhood during this period. This is where these people, who were largely from southern and eastern Europe at that time, were settling and they didn't have a whole lot of choice in the matter. I mean, one of the themes in the exhibit is about the prejudice that people encountered when they got here.”

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VOICES of Black Women is a long-term study working in conjunction with the Population Science team and American Cancer Society (ACS) that aims to enroll at least 100,000 black women in the United States over the next few years. According to ACS researcher, Alpa Patel, there has been an underrepresentation of black women in their studies historically.

“So, we are launching this new study called Voices of Black Women to build on that legacy of population studies where we can really understand what the unique multi -level drivers of cancer risk and poor outcomes unfortunately for black women are. We know that black women disproportionately die if they hear the words, you have cancer, “said Patel.

The hope is that the participants will help researchers overcome previous limitations from under-representation. Information from the volunteers will help optimize the health of Black women for generations to come by giving ACS VOICES researchers the opportunity to:

• Advance the knowledge of the health conditions that affect Black women.
• Inform strategies for interventions to help Black women decrease their risk for certain diseases.
• Inform advocacy efforts that initiate, support, or expand health policies based on evidence-based research.

Tashia James became a volunteer for Voices of Black Women and an ambassador for ACS after losing so many family members to cancer.

“I wanted to elevate black women's voices so that my sisters, my children, that we could understand the environmental impact on our lives and how we can change it for future generations. I also have had several family members that have lost their lives to cancer, and I want to know why. So that is really what motivated me and making sure that women know how to, you can't necessarily prevent cancer, but you know, the steps that you can take. So that is what motivated me to participate in this study, “said James.

ACS will be building partnerships with the women who are engaging in the study. If you would like to sign up, CLICK HERE.

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PennDOT is embarking on a long-term project to make major improvements along Interstate 83 in the Harrisburg area. This multi-phase project will have a major impact on motorists in the Capital region for the next several years.

Richard Reisinger, Design Chief of the project, shared an overview about the improvements planned for the I-83 Eisenhower interchange.

“Specific to the Eisenhower interchange, it will be a brand-new interchange constructed. That will include new connections to all the legs for traffic, so it will be connections to Interstate 283, 322 to the Hershey area, the main line of Interstate 83 along with local road connections in that vicinity, “said Reisinger.

According to John Bachman, Project manager, this will be a long-term, multi- phase project.

“Well, I guess we go back to the master plan that was done and started in 2001 and finished in 2003. We have East Shore Section 1, which is union deposit to 81. That's already through design and construction. Right now, we have in final design the Eisenhower interchange and also East Shore Section 3, which is down in the city of Harrisburg, and that piece there is under construction right now. Construction again, as we said, is kind of jump from Section 1 to Section 3. Until we get everything done, it's probably going to be around 2038 up at the Eisenhower, “said Bachman.

Bachman says they are working to keep the interstate flowing during the construction.

“So we're going to maintain the lanes we have out there now. That varies as you drive through the corridor from the Susquehanna River up to the Eisenhower interchange. There will be detours. As people are familiar with the Eisenhower, it is a multi -level interchange with ramps connecting, as Rich noted, between 83, 283, 322, and then you have the local streets”

However, Reisinger, believes these upgrades overall will improve safety and traffic flow once completed.

“Well, anyone who travels the corridor knows. There are several bottleneck areas where traffic queues and has heavy volumes and slows down, so the intention here is to, in basic terms, provide three lanes of travel, three through lanes of travel in each direction. Certain areas, there will be additional auxiliary lanes that will serve as ramp connections, so to make that improvement, to keep the traffic that really wants to flow through the area continuing to flow, not providing or not having those backups and queuing and a lot of lane change potential should help with safety greatly, along with, as we mentioned, that local road connection, so Paxton Street, Union Deposit, trying to clean up some of those connections and make the local road network also more user friendly, “said Reisinger.

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Few theatres in the world bring stories to like quite like Sight & Sound Theatre. Sight and Sound is known for its set, immersive storytelling, and larger than life productions. Glen Brodersen, Senior Technical Director of the Sight & Sound Theatre in Lancaster, says there are key differences between the locations in Lancaster, Pa and Branson, Mo.

“So, the Lancaster location is actually our design and build primary locations or our story team. Most of our creatives work out of the Lancaster location. And then we share some of the build with our Branson location. They have a shop as well, and they would help build parts of our shows. But when we actually premiere a brand-new production, it premieres on the Lancaster stage and runs about a year. And then we transfer that show to our Branson location, about 60 tractor trailer trucks to move a show from one location to another. And the stages are almost identical. So, when we design a show for the Lancaster stage, we design it with the Branson stage in mind as well. So, when we tear that show down and put it on the other stage, it actually fits mostly correctly all the time.”

It takes nearly 48 months for Sight & Sound to develop a new show concept to opening night.

“So, two years of that is actually sitting and figuring out all the elements of the show and how they're going to impact the story. And then the other two years of that is actually building the physical sets and costumes and effects for a show. So about four years from when we have our first design meeting to when it actually hits the stage for the first time.”

Listen to the podcast to hear more.

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