By Brittany Krasutsky, Owen Middle School Science Teacher

The Summer of 2016 was busy for Owen Middle School( OMS) science teacher Brittany Krasutsky. She, along with 10 other middle and high school educators from around North Carolina, traveled to Singapore in mid-July. Their mission was to learn about the best practices of teaching science and mathematics from their counterparts in one of the world’ s mostacclaimed education systems. She tells us more about her trip and how she is applying this experience to her classroom lessons.

Singapore is a relatively young nation, having established its independence in 1965. Once a small fishing village, today it is a bustling multicultural and cosmopolitan city-state that commands a strong presence in the world with its free trade economy and highly efficient workforce.

Singapore’ s leaders very quickly recognized that education would be crucial to its cultural and economic success as a nation. Thus, Singapore’ s leaders implemented an innovative education system to bolster one of its greatest resources— its people. The system has further evolved as the needs of the nation have grown.

Today, only 50 years later, Singapore’ s students consistently rank near the top in international comparisons of performance in mathematics, science, and literacy.

Go Global NC( an educational nonprofit that funds

School of Science and Technology Singapore student shows Stefani Joyner how to use the robotic hand he built in class.

various global outreach programs) has found that increasing teacher knowledge about the world helps increase teacher confidence and competence in providing students with the skills to navigate successfully through a globalized and interconnected world.

NC educators who have participated in past professional development programs have collectively created over 400 lesson plans that help bring a global perspective into the classroom. In addition, teachers have gained the increased ability to view issues and problems from multiple perspectives, have increased their commitment to teaching, have gained exposure to best practices and new teaching methodologies, and have increased their comfort level in using cutting edge technology applications in the classroom.

I’ ve been able to weave in many of the things I observed into class instruction for seventh-grade