Flasher teacher receives $5,000 grant to improve her science lab

Schools in rural communities often lack resources. A teacher in Flasher is looking to change that.

The Society for Science and the Public has offered a $5,000 grant to Flasher Public School teacher Tana Schafer. The money will help her upgrade the Bio-Safety Level 1 lab into a Level 2 lab, making research more accessible to students.

"A lot of science experiments that kids want to do, we're not allowed to do in our actual lab because you have to have certain safety standards," said Schafer, a science teacher at Flasher Public School.

But that hasn't stopped ambitious students from getting started.

"I'm testing to see if antibiotic resistance in humans, if it occurs or not," said Jada Bonogofsky, a ninth grader at the school.

Right now, the students can only conduct their full experiments if they drive an hour away to the closest qualified lab.

"A couple of the experiments we are doing this year, they have to do it every day or every other day, so the travel costs get to be a lot," said Schafer.

Bringing the new science lab to rural Flasher will give students the same opportunities as those in larger communities.

Schafer is one of 28 teachers to receive the grant. She says she hopes the new lab will inspire more students to experiment with science.