Katherine Ward

Katherine Ward

Katherine Ward currently teaches Advanced Placement Biology and Biotechnology at Aragon High School in San Mateo. She graduated from the University of California, Davis in 1990 with a degree in Human Development and received her teaching credential in Life Sciences in 1996 from San Francisco State University. She is a passionate teacher who delivers a rigorous academic and quality laboratory experience rich with multimodal opportunities for students and continuously strives to education and enable informed, aware and scientifically literate citizens. She established the Biotechnology course at her school and is a mentor for her school’s US FIRST Robotics Team. She works extensively with students to help them secure summer internships with local colleges, companies and biotechnology education partnerships.

She is a strong advocate for powerful teacher professional development and education reform. As a teacher consultant, Katie helped to found the Design Challenge Summer Institutes for Teachers at the Tech Museum in San Jose. As a GeneConnection Steering Committee member she assists the program with providing biotechnology and pedagogical support for San Mateo County science teachers. In addition, she works as a teacher consultant providing biology content expertise to the Exploratorium Teacher Institutes each summer helping middle and high school teacher from all over the country prepare low-cost, “scroungeable” alternative materials for classroom laboratory and modeling activities and produce innovative new activities.

Katie was a member of the California State Curriculum Framework and Evaluation Criteria Committee in 2009 and was selected as sole representative of the nation’s K-12 mathematics and science teachers on the blue-ribbon, 23-member national Carnegie-IAS Commission on Mathematics and Science Education Reform convened to make significant and actionable recommendations for K-14 mathematics and science education reform addressed to federal and state governments, local school districts, colleges/universities, businesses and foundations. The report, “The Opportunity Equation” was released in June 2009.

Ward joined CalTAC in 2012.