The award was presented during SVSU's student teacher orientation on August 10.

Cripe was nominated for the award by a student teacher who worked in her classroom. The nominator wrote: “My host teacher, Mrs. Cripe, exemplifies excellence in teaching in every possible way. Having had the privilege of being both her third-grade student and her student teacher, I’ve been able to see her impact from multiple perspectives, and it is nothing short of remarkable. Mrs. Cripe is the kindest teacher I have ever met, consistently creating a classroom environment rooted in warmth, safety, and genuine care. She goes to great lengths to ensure every student succeeds, meeting each learner where they are and guiding them forward with patience and intentionality.”

The Harold W. Peterson Award was established in 1985 with a gift from Dr. H. W. Peterson, the founding dean of the SVSU College of Education. Peterson served as dean from 1968-1982 and continued as a faculty member until his retirement in 1985. The award is intended to honor an elementary or secondary teacher for excellence in teaching who is currently employed in Bay, Midland, Saginaw or Tuscola counties and who best exemplifies the spirit and goals of the award.

The proposed research station will be the first university-operated research station on Lake Huron. The multipurpose facility will support academic activities for SVSU students, educational activities for K-12 students and research opportunities for citizen scientists.

SVSU already engages in extensive water research in the Saginaw Bay watershed. The proposed Lake Huron Environmental Research Station will expand opportunities for the university to collaborate with local, state and federal partners, including public health departments, Michigan’s Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy (EGLE), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and others. Research and educational programs will focus on freshwater ecosystems within Saginaw Bay, Lake Huron and the surrounding watershed.

The Saginaw Community Foundation committed the first gift to the research station earlier this year. The gift was made from Carl H., Jr. and Sandra Werth Fund held by SCF. SVSU will recognize the gift by naming the Carl and Sandra Werth Mesocosm Laboratory in their honor. This lab will contain an experimental water enclosure to simulate natural ecosystems in a controlled environment.

“With the Lake Huron Environmental Science Research Station, Saginaw Valley State University will continue to advance academic rigor, community enrichment and collaborative partnerships that benefit the Great Lakes Bay Region and beyond. The Saginaw Community Foundation is proud to support this important endeavor,” said Reneé Johnston, SCF president.  

The Herbert H. and Grace A. Dow Foundation awarded a grant in the amount of $750,000 to support the research station.

“The Herbert H. and Grace A. Dow Foundation is proud to support the Lake Huron Environmental Science Research Station at Saginaw Valley State University. This initiative strengthens the scientific vitality of our region, expands opportunities for students, and deepens our shared understanding of the Great Lakes ecosystem that sustains our communities,” said Ruth Doan, Herbert H. and Grace A. Dow Foundation board president. “We value SVSU’s commitment to rigorous research and public service, and we are confident that this station will advance knowledge for the benefit of Michigan today and for generations to come.”

The Charles J. Strosacker Foundation has made a gift of $75,000 to support the initiative, and the Bay Area Community Foundation has granted SVSU $20,000 from the Community Initiative Fund to support the project.

SVSU will commit University resources of $2.5 million from capital project reserves and has received federal funding for the project. Fundraising efforts are ongoing to support construction and programming for the Lake Huron Environmental Science Research Station.

SVSU plans to proceed with groundbreaking following construction approval by the Michigan legislature.

John Potts, SVSU’s physics laboratory technician and model rocket enthusiast, along with mechanical engineering major Lucas Colpaert and physics major Kayla Newson, composed one of 24 three-person teams selected for the NASA RockOn workshop, which took place in June.

“Opportunities like the RockOn workshop provide students with educational experiences that expand their thinking and deepen their understanding of subject matter they cover in regular coursework,” Potts said. “They also fan the flames of students’ passions and introduce them to career paths they might not have considered.”

During the workshop, each participating team – comprising a faculty member and two students – built a science payload that was launched on a sounding rocket and gathered data during the rocket flight. The workshop guided the teams through the experiment process: concept, design, build, integration, flight and analysis.

Sounding rockets do not orbit Earth. Rather, they fly from 50 to 120 miles high, gathering data, then parachute back to Earth.

During the first seven days of the workshop, the teams worked on assembling their experiments, which consisted of instruments to measure acceleration, temperature, pressure, radiation, humidity and position. Assembly involved soldering sensitive components to a shield board and mounting the shield board, a Geiger counter, an Arduino microcontroller and batteries to an acrylic disk, testing each step as it was completed. Then all of the experiments were loaded onto the sounding rocket.

The payoff came on the eighth day, when the workshop participants witnessed the 5:30 a.m. launch of the rocket into the atmosphere, roughly 115 miles above the Earth. About 12 minutes later, the rocket splashed down in the Atlantic, 75 miles off-shore, where it was retrieved and brought back to the facility so the experiments could be analyzed. The trio returned to SVSU with their experiment and the data it collected on its brief flight. 
More importantly, they came back with more ideas about how to apply workshop learnings into the instructional experience.

Providing students with experiential learning opportunities like the RockOn workshop aligns with one of SVSU’s strategic priorities.   
“Here in the physics department, we really try to help our students get experiences that they're not going to get at a big university,” Potts said.  
For the students, the RockOn workshop provided more than lessons in building an experiment.  

“Being able to talk to NASA employees and get advice from them — that itself was just as valuable as anything we learned from the actual workshop,” Newson said.
Colpaert agreed. “This was amazing,” he said. “If I have the opportunity to work on rockets again in the future, I will reach for that more.”