Disaster - College of Veterinary Medicine - Texas A&M University

Tammy Fernandez, research associate and teacher;
Vince Hardy, research assistant; veterinary medical
students; graduate students; and undergraduate
students all combine efforts to make the program a
success.
Less than a year ago, Michele Ward and Tammy
Fernandez joined the PEER team. They are former
middle school teachers who were brought on board to
take the information from the veterinarians and alter
the content into “teacher-friendly language” as well as
to update the curriculum so it is compliant with TEKS
(Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills) standards.
“Teachers are looking for something they can grab
on to, tweak just a little bit and immediately bring into
the classroom,” said Fernandez. “This is a program to
be added to a teacher’s bag of tricks, helping them enhance
their classroom. It gives them a tool to make a
topic more interesting and more engaging than maybe
it was the previous year.”
PEER also puts on workshops during the summer
months throughout the state of Texas to teach different
techniques and to provide curriculum for teachers.
This summer, teachers signed up for workshop classes
in College Station, Huntsville, Lubbock, San Antonio,
El Paso, and Amarillo.
The PEER program has generated huge success
and has made teachers more excited than ever to put
new techniques into practice. Since its inception three
years ago, the program has grown from 116 attendees
to the 414 attendees who signed up for the workshops
this summer. Johnson explained that one of the teachers
said she had never been so excited to get back into
the classroom to teach her students and her summer
vacation had just begun.
“Using the animals in the classroom is beneficial
because children love animals,” said Ward. “The focus
of the class is on animals, but the students are really
learning about themselves. Providing appropriate
lesson plans is an important part of helping teachers
achieve this accomplishment in the classroom.”
PEER continues to devise innovative programs to
reach young students across the state of Texas. The
goal of PEER is to ignite a passion for science in youth
so they will want to learn and discover about the world
around them for the rest of their lives.
“We can use (children’s) love for animals to stimulate
people’s knowledge about their environment and
surroundings,” Johnson said.
Through a combined effort of the CVM team, local
veterinarians, and teachers, the PEER program is able
to continue developing new ways to reach out to youth
and to help the next generation of scientists discover a
new found passion.
CVM Today • Summer 2010 • 13