Marcella Upshur-Dudley, who has taught science at New Town High School since 2008, was one of 51 teachers nationwide to be awarded an Endeavor Fellowship with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the agency announced in a press release last week.

NASA selects the recipients through a highly competitive application process.

NASA's Endeavor Science Teaching Certificate Project provides live, online training for educators working to earn a STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) certificate from Teachers College at Columbia University in New York, the release said.

Along with being admittedly surprised about receiving the honor, Upshur-Dudley—who teaches chemistry to 10^th-, 11^th-, and 12^th-graders—says she’s excited to apply what she learns through the fellowship and implement more “inquiry” among students in her classroom using real world contexts.

“As a teacher instead of trying to over plan everything and have it completely structured,” Upshur-Dudley said, “you back off on some of the structure and the students are allowed to explore and you let them find some of the answers.

“It drives them crazy at first because I won’t tell them, ‘yeah you’re right or no that’s wrong,’ because you’re more focused on the process of exploration and finding answers than whether or not your answer matches something that somebody came up with.”

A 12-year veteran of teaching, Upshur-Dudley found out about the fellowship through a separate training program she was accepted to last spring.

"NASA made the right decision choosing Mrs. Upshur-Dudley for the Endeavor Fellowship," New Town principal Samuel Mustipher said.

"Mrs. Upshur-Dudley is an outstanding educator with a passion for students and the field of science.  I am confident that her students will benefit from her work with the scientists at NASA."