2012 Washington State American History Teacher of the Year

Steven Lawrence
Meridian High School
Meridian School District
Seattle Pacific University, Bachelor of Arts
Iliff School of Theology, Master of Arts
Western Washington University, Teaching Certificate

Steven Lawrence started his teaching career in 1994 at Meridian High School. He teaches U.S. History & Government, AP U.S. Government, Current Issues, Law & Society, and Comparative Religion. He serves as the chair of the Social Studies Department and on the District Social Studies Curriculum team. He coaches the school's Mock Trial team and is the advisor for the Teen Court club. He is also the girls Golf coach and president of the Meridian Education Association.

Over his career, Lawrence has helped students conduct and collect oral histories of alumni, created a website on local history, created a mock trial on Harry Truman’s decision to drop the atomic bomb, created a mock Nuremburg trial, developed town hall meetings on the American Revolution and the Civil War, created a mock Constitutional Convention as well as a mock U.S. Congress. He has also developed a curriculum on 20th Century U.S. Cultural History. Students study how American culture has evolved over the 20th Century, focusing especially on music, art, film and sports. The students create their own Cultural History projects as a culminating activity.