Hello! My name is Alison Bowers. I teach 8th-12th grade science courses at Hanson School District, which is located in Alexandria, South Dakota. Hanson is a smaller district, which means I get to teach a variety of classes to many age groups, which I love. I enjoy having most of my students for at least 3 years, but the lucky ones will be in my classes for 4 or 5 years throughout their high school career. 

When I was looking at career options not very many years ago, I knew I wanted to do something in science. I looked into biomedical research and a few ecology positions, but I didn’t feel like I wanted to specialize into such a specific topic. I greatly preferred big picture ideas and interacting with more people. I love teaching science because I love finding out about how the world works and getting to share amazing things with my students. 

Besides teaching every day, I love to find out more and participate in things that help me become a better teacher. These include working with state-level leaders to talk about science standards and curriculum, writing new curriculum for other teachers to use, and learning and sharing new techniques and ideas for science classrooms, as often as possible. My name appears on this website because EPSCoR received grant money to create a connection between scientists in South Dakota and science teachers. The goal is to create engaging lessons that will help peak students’ interest in STEM and to really realize what being a scientist means. I am very grateful for all of the opportunities and resources that are available for science teachers and for the awesome people I get to work with!