WARSAW — The Lilly Endowment Teacher Creativity Fellowship Program recognizes innovative Indiana educators with grants to pursue projects that may bring global awareness to their teaching. Washington STEM Academy’s David Burden was recently one of 100 Indiana teachers awarded with this grant.

Burden’s project “Hawaii: Let’s See What Develops” will include photography of Hawaii’s nature, wildlife, climate zones, ecosystems and land formations. Burden will bring this experience back to his students at Washington.

Burden currently serves as a fifth grade teacher at Washington STEM Academy. Two years ago this elementary received an innovation grant from the Indiana Department of Education to transform this elementary into one of the first STEM schools in the state. Most recently, this same school become one of the first of five to have the distinction of being named a state-certified STEM school and serves as a model school in the state.

WCS Superintendent Dr. David Hoffert states, “Mr. Burden is an integral part of this transformation as his science, technology, engineering and math curriculum prepares these students in 21st Century skills and for college and career readiness.

“Mr. Burden can be seen with the students in the local streams or creeks bringing the science and nature (macroinvertebrates) to life and engaging the students in project-based learning outside of a normal classroom. With this grant, Mr. Burden will be able to travel to a different landscape and climate (Hawaii) to photograph the vast variety of land formations, climate, ecosystems that introduce wildlife and nature that most of his students will never have the opportunity to explore.”