Christine Arnold, a seventh-grade teacher at Sigonella Middle/High School on Sigonella Naval Air Station in Sicily, Italy, has worked for the Department of Defense Education Activity (DODEA) in Europe for four years. Prior to teaching for DODEA, Ms. Arnold was a science and technology resource teacher for the District of Columbia Public Schools and an elementary school teacher in Fulton County, GA, and Munich, Germany. She serves as the National Junior Honor Society advisor, as the grade-level team leader for teachers, and on the School Improvement Leadership Team.
Ms. Arnold motivates her students to become lifelong learners of science, and she obtains additional training in order to enrich her classroom. She takes her students on science field trips and accompanied three students on a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Weather Center scientific expedition to view the JASON Project in Miami, FL. She is readily available to other teachers, parents, and students and mentors students in the National Junior Honor Society, Junior Science and Humanities Symposium, and Eco-Teens.
Ms. Arnold was awarded the European Junior Science and Humanities Symposium Mentor Award in 2007. In 2002 she served as a teaching fellow for the Carnegie Institute of Washington, Carnegie Academy for Science Education and as a teaching fellow for the National Science Teachers Association Webwatchers Institute. Ms. Arnold has presented at regional and national conferences of the National Science Teachers Association.
Ms. Arnold has DODEA and Virginia state certification to teach pre-kindergarten through grade eight and middle school science. She has a B.A. in history and American studies and an M.T. in elementary education, with a technology focus, from the University of Virginia. Ms. Arnold also holds a National Aeronautics and Space Administration lunar rock and meteorite certification.