Northern Michigan University education major Gwen Hoenke of Marquette has been awarded an internship with Uncommon Charter Schools in Brooklyn, N.Y. She will teach mathematics in a middle school classroom to students who need extra help during the summer months. The internship includes a $3,500 stipend and room and board.

To obtain the internship, Hoenke presented a lesson on finding the volume of a cylinder. She used fruit rollups to demonstrate that doubling the radius of a cylinder will result in a volume that is four times larger. 

Hoenke said professor Judy Puncochar helped her through the internship application process and encouraged her to write up the lesson plan for publication. Hoenke is listed as first author.

“I’m constantly amazed by the commitment our education professors have to their students at NMU,” Hoenke said. “Judy spent hours helping me with this lesson, wanting to make sure I succeeded."  

Hoenke was enrolled in Puncochar’s course titled “teaching and learning in the secondary school.”