Three science teachers from Queen Creek High School have been selected for the Arizona STEM Acceleration Project fellowship.

Two of the teachers, Jolie Varholdt and Laura Winder, have been chosen for a second year, with the third teacher. Nicholas Fruit, chosen for year one, according to a Queen Creek Unified School District press release.

Fruit already has plans for how his fellowship will impact his students’ education.

“I am planning to purchase prosthetics for my students to explore neuroscience,” Fruit stated in the release. “I am excited to see how the students will react to how they can control a fake hand with their own nervous system.” 

Varholdt and Winder received their first award last year.

“The process was similar but I believe the questions were more in depth,” Winder stated in the release. “In my class, I am buying more sensors so we can add more to our nuclear chemistry unit.”

The Arizona STEM Acceleration Project, or ASAP, is supported by Arizona State University’s Center for Science and the Imagination, and the Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College.

“ASAP is a grassroots effort to enhance and accelerate STEM activities in schools across Arizona,” according to ASU’s website. “This project connects educators with professional development organizations and funding partners to build a more collaborative, more imaginative foundation for developing and delivering STEM resources and training opportunities to educators statewide.”