SUSAN GRAN

Susan earned a bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education and a master’s degree in Content Area Literacy from the University of Arizona. She taught science and reading to middle school students in Tucson for eleven years and coached her school’s Science Olympiad Team for seven of those years. While in Tucson, Susan served as a department chair, wrote district-wide curriculum and assessments, and held leadership positions on several committees. As part of the district’s NSF-funded DESERT Project, she led professional development in science teaching best practices for teachers from all twenty-six middle schools in the district. Additionally, during her Tucson tenure, Susan was selected as a Woodrow Wilson Teacher Fellow and spent a summer working on research projects at Princeton and Rutgers Universities.

After moving to Lafayette and earning a PhD in Science Education at Purdue University, Susan returned to the classroom, where she has taught high school students in a variety of subject areas. She currently teaches Physics, Astronomy, and AP Environmental Science at Lafayette Jefferson High School. Additionally, as the Corporation’s Planetarium Director, Susan enjoys sharing her love of astronomy with students of all ages. She is committed to making science accessible to all students by incorporating real-world applications into standards-based content. Susan has secured nearly $20,000 in local and regional grants to fund numerous projects aimed at sparking students’ interest in lifelong science learning. This desire motivated her to apply for the Noyce Microelectronics Master Teacher Fellowship, through which she hopes to help students better understand and appreciate the importance of microelectronics, given their prominence in our daily lives.