About Izolda

NASA Master Trainer and Small Footprint Advocate

We can live happy, bountiful, and abundant lives while taking care of our environment. With a few simple changes, we can make a huge difference in the lives of the animals and the health of our planet and the animals.

Born in the former Soviet Union, my family immigrated to the USA. During my time as an Earth Science Master Trainer for NASA and as a National Geographic Society staffer, I developed interactive, hands-on workshops and programs that inspire students to learn more about our planet Earth. I bring that wealth of knowledge, fun, and excitement to every program. Your students will leave inspired, excited, and curious to learn more about how they can make a difference.

Contact me to learn more about bringing an Earth Lady program to your school.

Why I Love to Teach

I was working with a 6th-grade math class and what we had decided to do was create an imaginary new 6th-grade wing for their elementary school. Then, I taught the kids some basic architectural and design techniques.

For the fieldwork, the students had to figure out the slope, the type of soil, aspect, and ideal configuration of the new wing. So, we incorporated all this science as part of this imaginary 6th-grade wing. The kids then designed their new wing and determined all the components like bathrooms, classrooms, lockers, windows, etc. And they needed to do the measurements and scale of their drawings when they compared them to how much land they would need. They then went out again and laid out their wing with flags and yarn.

Well, there was this one student who was running in the classroom completely just running, running. He could not stop talking and could not stop moving. And the first thing I show the students is a NASA satellite image of the Earth, and I ask, “What do you see?”

It’s a chance for the students to use their observational skills. They say, “I see clouds,” “I see water,” and “I see land.” And this student looks up, and he says, “I see the Arabian Peninsula.”

“Excuse me?”

“Yeah, there it is.”

“Really? What countries?”

“Well, you can’t see the geopolitical boundaries on this because it’s a satellite image,” he says. “But there’s Yemen, there’s Oman, there’s the United Arab Emirates, and there’s Saudi Arabia.”

So, the rest of the time I was there, everything I could relate back to geography, I did. And that student became my deputy the rest of the time I was there because anything I could relate back to geography, he was right on top of it. It was amazing.

The teacher later told me that the rest of the year, anytime she could relate math back to geography, she did. And he became the most amazing student because we plugged into something he loved.

Once we get into something the students love or find relevant, they’re so motivated and so excited.

That’s what makes it all worthwhile.

One last nugget of news: It turned out that the middle school was actually going to be building a new sixth-grade wing. The students turned in their designs and a couple of their designs ended up as finalists for construction.