Michele “Mickie” Flores, a middle school STEM teacher from Maine, has earned a Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching (PAEMST). Photo Credit: PAEMST
Many fine STEM educators have earned recognition for their work in the teaching profession. One of these is Michele Flores of Maine, who has garnered a prestigious Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching (PAEMST).
Michele, who prefers to be called “Mickie,” has been a science educator since 1985. She has taught at all levels, including elementary, middle school, and high school. For the past 11 years, she has taught fifth graders through seventh graders at Deer-Isle Stonington Elementary School located in Deer Isle, Maine. Prior to that assignment, she taught chemistry at H.C. Williams High School for six years, middle level science at JM McKenney Middle School for 15 years, and five years at Immaculate Conception School. She also taught courses in science methods at the State University of New York at Potsdam.
As a teacher, Mickie has a reputation for creating a very innovative and collaborative curriculum. For example, during the 2020-2021 school year, her fifth and sixth graders monitored how birds used the bird feeder located on the school’s nature trail. They estimated cloud cover, recorded bird activity, graphed their data, and published their conclusions online. That same year, Mickie’s sixth and seventh grade students studied climate change in collaboration with students in both San Diego, California, and Honolulu, Hawaii. Together, they created an 80-page comic book on the subject. The students even interviewed local scientists as well as a comic book illustrator and produced graphic nonfiction comics from their interviews. The honored teacher explained that theiir goal was to have a voice in educating the public about the causes, effects, and solutions to the current climate crisis.
In addition to her work in the classroom, Mickie serves on the Teacher Advisory Group for the Maine Mathematics and Science Alliance. She also serves on the Hancock County Teaching Collaborative of the Gulf of Maine Research Institute. As a result of the work done by the Collaborative, the Institute garnered a grant from Rethinking Remote Education Ventures to create an accessible boardwalk and outdoor classroom for Deer Isle School’s nature trail.
Mickie earned her Bachelor’s degree in Animal Services in 1975 from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. She earned her Master’s degree in Secondary Education and Teaching in 1980 from Elmira College in Elmira, New York.
