Kelly Kilts

Kelly Kilts from Lexington High School (LHS) kicks off our RET Teacher of the Week! A physics and astronomy teacher to seniors, she is continuing the LHS trend for RET participants.

Kilts has been interested in astronomy since third grade, but ended up majoring in physics because MIT did not offer an astronomy degree. The teaching profession also seemed to be her calling. “I’ve been told since about middle school that I was good at explaining things clearly without being condescending, so I always figured I could be a good teacher,” said Kilts.

She found out about the RET program from last year’s participant/fellow LHS teacher Ryan Grams, and decided to try it out. “I’m hoping to go back to school with a better idea of the skills students need to do real science,” she said. “Just giving lectures and tests doesn’t prepare them to think through problems, and I want my students to be able to do that.”

Kilts is working with REU Kylee O’ Dell on an adaptive biological microscope in Professor Bifano’s lab. O’ Dell has been helping Kilts out in the lab by answering questions and helping her set up the optical bench for example. Kilts said, “[Kylee’s] a hard work worker. She tries to see as much as she can of all the projects going on and is persistent about looking for a solution when we run into a problem.”

Kilts is hoping to bring the skills learned this summer back into her classroom. She wishes the curriculum were a little bit looser so that students could explore their own interests while also having a teacher guide them.

“I think a lot of teachers are either under heavy obligation to finish everything in the curriculum or aren’t comfortable with students exploring things they don’t know the answer to,” said Kilts. “It would be great if students learned that teachers don’t know all the answers, but we can help them find their own answers in meaningful ways.”

While science is a wonderful field to enter, she would like to see some changes made inside and outside the classroom. One issue is the “leaky pipeline problem” where females end up leaving STEM fields, causing a huge gender disparity.

“It’s an institutionalized problem, but the institutions are made of people, so individuals should be held accountable for their behavior, positive or negative,” said Kilts.

Outside teaching, Kilts has a variety of other hobbies. She is learning Japanese, likes to go kayaking and rollerblading, as well as flexes her green thumb by tending to her vegetable garden. She added, “for the first time I’m playing Pokémon (which has been great for getting to know the other RETs and REUs!).”

We wish Kilts all the best as she continues the RET program and tries to catch ‘em all!