Melissa Saldana once was a fourth grade teacher at Caldwell Heights Elementary School and is now a curriculum designer now at the education company: Amplify. Saldana participated in the CDCM MRSEC RET program in the Summer of 2018 working in Dr. Eric Anslyn's research lab with Stephanie Valenzuela as her graduate student mentor. During the Summer of 2018, Saldana created her lesson "Fun with Leaf Chromatography!" and over the last few school years implemented, updated, and finely tuned the lesson which is now published on TeachEngineering.org! In the lesson students investigate different colored pigments in a variety of different colored leaves. 

Picture: Melissa Saldana in Anslyn Research Lab