John Kounas Sloan, IA | 7-12, Science, 1996

John Kounas taught for 40 years at Westwood High School in the town of Sloan, Iowa. During that time span, he earned a M.S. and was awarded a lifetime teaching certificate for all sciences. As computers continued to gain importance, John continued his education by becoming certified to teach both computer programming courses in various computer languages and introductory/advanced computer application courses. John was also selected to serve on his seven-county area educational board and was one of seven to help provide services for science teachers of all levels. Over a period of more than 10 years, he and his colleagues conducted at least two workshops during the regular school year and one each summer. For a period of more than 15 years, John conducted and sponsored weeklong summer science trips for my students. Students under his supervision were required to work to earn at least 50% of their trip cost by selling concessions, salt, and working in construction-related projects—nearly 750 students took part. The program was strongly supported by parents and the community. During his 40 years at Westwood, John served as the chair of science education for the entire district. During his tenure, he applied for and received numerous grants which benefited all levels in the district; providing a reading and mathematics lab for elementary levels and three other computer labs for grades 7-12. Two of these grants totaled nearly $40,000; others provided 2,000 free computers from the government. Throughout his tenure, the state science scores for his school were consistently in the upper 92% level.

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