Lorie Hammerstrom has been an educator for more than 30 years in the Quincy Public School District. She has spent the last seven years teaching fourth and fifth grade science at Merrymount Elementary School. In 2011, Lorie won a scholarship to attend Space Academy for Teachers in Huntsville, Alabama. In 2012 she was awarded a second scholarship to attend the Advanced Space Academy for Teachers. She has developed an ongoing afterschool Space Camp for students, which includes science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) projects, and visits by NASA astronauts. Lorie�s students experience many enrichment activities. These include the NASA Distance Learning Network, Train Like An Astronaut, and a rocket engineering design challenge. Lorie was awarded the Presidential Award for Math and Science Teaching for 2016. This is the nation's highest honors for teachers of mathematics and science. In 2017, Lorie was invited to Space Center Houston, where she and other science teachers experienced authentic survival training in the Neutral Buoyancy Lab which astronauts use to prepare for living and working in space. The teachers developed lessons promoting teamwork, problem solving, communication and engineering. The lessons were designed to develop and improve critical thinking skills, fiscal responsibility, creativity and the drive to be successful. Lorie has a B.S., summa cum laude, in education and a M.Ed. from Eastern Nazarene College in Quincy, MA. She is a certified elementary and middle school teacher.