Achievements
2010 WVSTA
Co-Presenter on Watershed Dynamics
2011 ISTE Presenter
Adam was among 16 West Virginia teachers who were presented the Golden Apple Achiever award by the Arch Coal Foundation in 2012. "The Golden Apple Achiever Award is presented to teachers who submitted exemplary applications to the Arch Coal Teacher Achievement Awards program and came close to being honored with the Foundation's major award," said John R. Snider, Arch Coal, Inc. vice president, external affairs, eastern region. "Our panel of peer judges -- past recipients of the award -- indicated the applications this year were of very high quality, which made selections difficult," said Snider. "West Virginia has many superior classroom teachers who deserve recognition. I hope each of these teachers will be nominated again next year."
Adam, along with three other science teachers from Gilmer County High School, developed a cross-discipline project based learning unit in collaboration with West Virginia University, West Virginia GLOBE Program, and the National Science Foundation. The project asked students from each science class to assess the health of the Little Kanawha River from discipline's perspective. After the development and execution of this project in the classroom, the teachers from Gilmer County High School and the other collaborators presented this project to the 2010 West Virginia Science Teachers Association Conference.
Adam presented at the 2011 International Society for Technology in Education Conference on how he implemented the use of iPads into his classroom. His presentation, iTeach with iPads, was a model lesson where members of the audience participated as students to better understand how the iPads were used in the science classroom. The class showed its use as an eBook, data collector for labs, word processor to write lab report, and a web browser to take an online quiz. After the demonstration, members from the audience asked questions about implementing iPads in their schools.
In 2013, 2012 and 2011, Adam was elected Gilmer County High School Teacher of the Year by the school's Faculty Senate. Each year, Gilmer County High School selects an exemplary teacher who best represents all of Gilmer County High School's teachers and symbolizes the profession's contributions to quality education. Adam was selected these years for his work with students during such projects as the West Virginia Pumpkin Drop Competition, the Team America Rocketry Challenge, and his students' weather balloon project.
2012 Golden Apple Achiever
Gilmer County High School Teacher of the Year Three Years Running
2009 WVSTA
Co-Presenter on ACT Summer Camp
Featured Teacher on Who Took My Chalk? in 2009
A professional development group called the EdVenture Group filmed Gilmer County High School and a few other schools to document how each school transitioned from a traditional teaching style to a school using 21st Century teaching methods. Because of his advanced use of technology in the classroom, Adam was a featured teacher in Who Took My Chalk?, the professional development course that emerged from those days of filming.
Adam and a fellow teacher held a weeklong day camp. Each morning students were taught ACT test taking skills for the science portion of the exam. In the afternoon, students participated in hands-on science activities to investigate the local watershed that correlated with the skills taught in the morning. By the end of the week, each student improved their ACT science score from the practice exam given at the beginning of the week when compared with the practice exam given at the end of the week. The methods and results of the camp were presented at the 2009 West Virginia Science Teacher Association Conference.
As a part of the first cohort in West Virginia's Transition to Teaching program, Adam was featured in an article touting the program's quality and effectiveness. In the article Teresa Epperley with the Transition to Teaching program said, “[Adam] is the epitome of the 21st century teacher. He appeals to students’ higher ordered thinking through the use of many hands-on activities and implementation of technology. It is this combination of content knowledge and innovative instructional strategies that have gained the attention of his peers.”
2009 Featured Teacher on the WVDE Web Page
Adam, along with Daniel Reed from Gilmer County High School, presented at the 2012 West Virginia Science Teachers Association Conference. They presented on the model rocketry program Adam developed at Gilmer County High School. In addition, they presented on the student designed weather balloon that traveled 26 miles above the Earth. It was released in front of the high school in Glenville, WV and landed near Mount Storm, WV. Both presentations showcased GCHS's programs and explained how other schools could develop versions of their own.
2012 WVSTA
Co-Presenter on TARC and Student Weather Balloons
Adam, along with Nikki Harper from Gilmer County High School, presented at the 2013 West Virginia Science Teachers Association Conference. They presented on the model rocketry program Adam developed at Gilmer County High School to compete in the Team America Rocketry Challenge (TARC). In addition, Adam presented on how he implemented a flipped classroom for his Chemistry I class. Both presentations showcased GCHS's programs and explained how other schools could develop versions of their own.
Adam, along with counselor Daniel Reed and principal Nasia Butcher from Gilmer County High School, presented at the 2013 ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education) Conference in San Antonio, Texas. Their workshop consisted of an overview of Gilmer County High School's rocketry program as well as the technology and software students use to design, build, and test model rockets. The workshop also covered how rocketry could create cross-curricular collaboration opportunities within a school.
2013 ISTE Presenter
2013 WVSTA
Presenter on TARC and Flipped Classrooms
Adam presented at the 2014 West Virginia Science Teachers Association Conference. He presented on how his ninth grade physical science students at Hurricane High School use video analysis software to calculate the velocity and acceleration of object. He showed how students recorded their own videos, used the software to graph various physical quantities, and wrote lab papers explaining their analysis.
2014 WVSTA Presenter on Video Analysis in the Classroom
Adam coaches two rocketry teams at Hurricane High School – a ninth grade team and a varsity team. The varsity team competed in the 2015 West Virginia Rocketry Association’s Competition. The varsity team’s rocket outperformed every other rocket at the competition, including rockets made by NASA employees. While visiting Morgantown, WV for the competition, the varsity team toured the campuses of WVU and Fairmont State University to meet with engineering professors and to see what kind of STEM opportunities were available to them.
2015 WV Rocketry Association Competition Winners
