Welcome to 6th Grade Science and AVID!

My name is Kristen Herrett and I am so excited to be teaching science as well as being part of the AVID program this 2022-2023 school year in 6th grade!

This is my sixth year teaching and all my years have been here at DMS. My children attend the Dixon schools and my husband teaches at Dixon High School, so we are a Bull Dog family!

I began my career here at Dixon as an exceptional children teacher and when my good friend Mrs. Ward retired, I took the opportunity to teach science as she had. I love sixth grade I am also thrilled to be working in the AVID program.

Here are five science facts about me:

1. Science is a family tradition! My mother and grandmother as well as many cousins are nurses. My grandfather is a retired chemist. My late father-in-law and his brother were both biochemists. My father-in-law even had his Ph.D! So science is in my blood.

2. My favorite real-life scientists are Dr. Neil de Grasse Tyson and Dr. Kizzmekia Corbett. Dr. Tyson is well known on social media and PBS for communicating complex scientific ideas so anyone can understand them. Dr. Corbett is a pioneer in mRNA research and technology.

3. I am a huge Marvel fan including comic books, MCU movies and anything in between. Marvel hires scientists to inform their work particularly in their MCU films including Avengers: Endgame, Ant-Man, and Iron Man. This insures that the scientific principles being worked on make sense from a science prospective...including time travel. :) And what scientist can't love that!

4. My favorite area of science to study is earth science. I love geology! I could spend all day in the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History's gemstone wing, and not just to stare at the Hope Diamond. As a very young child, I would sit with my grandparents' World Book encyclopedias when I visited them over summer and just read and look at pictures of rocks and learn about earth layers. I am so excited I will get to teach this in sixth grade. 

5. Science is one of my favorite subjects because it combines all the other subjects. We have to do math and calculations in science. We have to understand history and what was done before for science to make sense. We have to be able to read and think critically and express ourselves effectively in writing within science to share our results.

At the end of the day, when you leave my classroom, I want you to feel like you did the best job you were able to that day. And my hope for all my students is that they believe in their ability to learn and know that doing right is always more important than being right.