Sharon Bowers

Sharon Bowers has taught science for 30 years, nearly 20 of those years in VBCPS. Her work with children earned her recognition as a Secondary Science Presidential Award Winner for Virginia. She is an instructor for the Mickelson ExxonMobil Teachers’ Academy, writes activities and trains teachers for the AIMS Education Foundation and has been a writer and reviewer for Harcourt Science. Sharon teaches online courses as adjunct faculty for the University of Virginia.

Currently, Sharon is an Educator-in-Residence (EIR) for VBCPS and the National Institute of Aerospace (NIA). This work has been instrumental in bringing several projects to VBCPS including: 21eTeacher and DaVinci Worlds. Through her work with NIA, Sharon works with LearniT-TeachiT to develop resources that model best practice in the use of instructional technology to support 21st Century teaching and learning. Through partnerships with NASA and local school divisions, NIA has developed NIA Universe, a multi-user interactive, synchronous virtual world that brings together students, teachers, and experts for collaborative work. Sharon oversees the development and use of this emerging technology to support collaborative, inquiry-based instruction. She is the program manager for the RealWorld-InWorld NASA Engineering Design Challenge, a challenge that uses NIA Universe as a platform for collaborative design.