Troy Teacher Wins $27,000 to Fund Mini-Med School Project

Rebecca Brewer said she knew something was up Friday when she was brought before nearly 2,000 screaming high school students to accept an award for a program she recently created.

Brewer, a biology teacher at , was told she won first place for the state in ING Financial's Unsung Heroes award program competition for her Mini-Med School: Simulating Surgeries program. The award, which comes with a $2,000 grant, is given to educators for innovative teaching ideas.

While school administrators told Brewer she would receive the award during Troy High School's homecoming pep assembly, they chose to surprise Brewer with a check for an additional $25,000 for taking first place in the nation.

"I was expecting $2,000," Brewer said after the presentation. "I was excited about $2,000; this was definitely a shock."

Brewer's project is designed to move 11th and 12th grade biology students from simply dissecting preserved specimens to performing mock surgical procedures on organs. For example, they go through classroom learning about the anatomy of the heart, then try to diagnose problems and perform mock surgeries to fix the problem.

"Rebecca Brewer finds ways to not only teach students but reach them to facilitate authentic learning," Troy High School Principal Mark Dziataczak said. "Mrs. Brewer's innovative lessons demonstrate the rigor, creativity and relevance needed to prepare Troy High's students to become the successful scientists and doctors of tomorrow."

Brewer said she has coordinated with area physicians to assist with the program and make the surgeries as real as possible. She said she would like to expand the program beyond the walls of her classroom and develop a how-to guide for mock surgeries in a biology classroom for teachers across the nation.

In its 15th year, the ING Unsung Heroes program has awarded nearly $3.8 million to nearly 1,600 educators across the country. Brewer was selected from a group of more than 1,400 applications and was one of five winners from Michigan.

"Educators are one of our country's most valuable resources and yet their hard work and efforts often times go unnoticed," Brian Comer, president of Public Markets for ING Retirement Services, said in a news release. "We hope the additional grant funds Rebecca Brewer was awarded through the ING Unsung Heroes program will help to sustain Mini-Med School.

"Educators make investments each day in the lives of our children. The very least we can do is to make an investment in them and their innovative programs that will benefit their classroom, their community and the lives of the children they will serve for years to come."