Tag Archives: STEM teachers

Science teacher Katie Strait of Maine earns recognition

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Science teacher Katie Strait of Portland, Maine, earns recognition for her work with young people. Photo credit: Maine Department of Education

I am always pleased to share the story of an exceptional teacher who has earned recognition for their work with young people. Today, I share the story of Katie Strait, a high school teacher who was named a 2024 County Teacher of the Year for the county of Cumberland, Maine.

Katie teaches at the Baxter Academy for Technology and Science, a public charter school located in Portland, Maine. The school offers courses in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) for students in grades nine through twelve. Katie teaches courses in biology and marine biology.

Katie was raised in upstate New York. When she graduated from high school, she moved to Maine to attend the University of New England. There she earned her Bachelor’s degree in Biology with a concentration in Marine Science. Then she enrolled at the University of New Hampshire where she earned a Master’s degree in Zoology with a focus in Aquaculture. Most of her professional career has been in the science industry – from R&D in a clinical chemistry lab to becoming a manager at Bangs Island Mussels.

Once she earned her degrees, Katie took a job in a clinical chemistry lab and worked for a while as a manager at Bangs Island Mussels. But it was a long-term substitute position at Sanford Middle School that caused her to realize she wanted to pursue a career in education. She taught at Sanford for five years and then, in 2021, she accepted the position at Baxter Academy.

In her classroom, Katie is well-known for her hands-on, real-world teaching style and her focus on relationship-building. She organizes regular field trips for her students to explore the nearby tide pools and marine ecosystems, and often organizes beach clean-ups, and then she asks her students to create art work with what they find during these clean-ups.

Megan Mullen of Nebraska becomes a finalist for a PAEMST award

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Nebraska STEM teacher Megan Mullen has been named one of three finalists in her state for a prestigious PAEMST award (Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching). Photo Credit: Megan Mullen

Congratulations go to Megan Mullen, a STEM teacher from Nebraska. She has been selected one of three teachers in her state to be finalists for a prestigious PAEMST award. The PAEMST (Presidential Awards for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching is the nation’s highest honor for K–12 science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and computer science teachers.

The PAEMST honors the dedication, hard work, and importance that America’s teachers play in supporting learners who will become future STEM professionals, including computer technologists, climate scientists, mathematicians, inventors, space explorers, and engineers. The PAEMST program, founded in 1983, is administered by the National Science Foundation (NSF) by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. The honor comes with a visit to the White House and a $10,000 cash prize.

Megan teaches in the Paxton Consolidated School District located in Paxton, Nebraska. There she has led her eighth grade STEM class in their exploration of drone construction and flight with new Drone Maker kits. The students experimented with various arm lengths to determine how that affects flight performance. The honored teacher was able to fund the project with a John Russell Applegate Grant.

Previously, with colleague Jordan Cullers, Megan coached fifth graders on the school’s Science Olympiad team. For this effort, Megan earned an Outstanding Coach award in 2017.

Way to go, Megan!

AZ teacher Andrea Barallardos named finalist for Arizona ambassador for Excellence

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Andrea Barallardos, a STEM teacher from Douglas, Arizona, has been named one of five finalists for a 2024 Arizona Ambassador for Excellence award. Photo Credit: Scripts Local Media

Congratulations are due to Andrea Barallardos, an exceptional math educator from Douglas, Arizona. She has been named one of five finalists for a 2024 Arizona Ambassador for Excellence award.

Andrea teaches engineering, technical education, and physics at Douglas High School. She has worked at the school since 1999. She also serves as the Chairperson for the Science Department, and she is a STEM coach and SkillsUSA advisor. Her students have excelled so well they have even garnered gold medals in Robotics and Automation technology in 2022 and 2023, and Mobile Robotics in 2023.

Andrea has also served as the school’s cheerleading advisor. Her teams have excelled there, too. In fact, they’ve won a total of five state championships, the most current being Division III Coed Cheer in 2023. 

When she was younger, Andrea’s decision to go into the classroom was not a foregone conclusion. “If you told me in high school that I was going to be a teacher I probably would have bet you a million dollars that I wasn’t,” she remembers. But her attitude about the profession took a radical change while she was studying to be a doctor in the Philippines. That’s when she was encouraged to consider education as a career by those who observed her teaching an anatomy class. “I love teaching,” Andrea declares. “So every day when I wake up it’s not like I’m going to a job. It’s like I’m going to something fun that I love doing,” she says.

Her recognition as an ambassador for excellence is not the only honor Andrea has received. In 2023, she was named Cochise County Teacher of the Year.

Andrea earned her Bachelor’s degree in Applied Sciences from Cebu Doctors’ University, Mandaue City, in the Philippines in 1998. She earned her Master’s degree in Science Education from Arizona State University in 2009.

To read more about Andrea Barallardos, click on this link to an article about her published by Skills USA Champions.

 

Award-winning math teacher and Major League Soccer referee Mark Geiger

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Former high school mathematics teacher Mark Geiger was also a highly-respected Major League Soccer referee. Photo Credit: Major League Soccer

Many outstanding educators are also recognized for their impressive accomplishments in athletic arenas. One of these is Mark Geiger, a former high school math teacher who also worked as a full-time referee for Major League Soccer in both the United States and Canada.

Mark was born on August 25, 1974, in Beachwood, New Jersey. After graduating from Trenton State College, he taught Advanced Placement Math at Lacey Townships High School in Lanoka Harbor, New Jersey. In 2009, he was one of 103 teachers who received the Presidential Award for Excellence in Math and Science Teaching (PAEMST). This prestigious award is given annually to the best elementary and secondary science and mathematics teachers from across the country.

Mark earned his National Soccer Referee badge in 2003 while still teaching. He began his career as a part-time Major League Soccer referee a year later. In 2008, Geiger was added to US Soccer’s International Panel of Referees, making him eligible for higher-profile international matches. The position required extensive travel. When he was offered a full-time, salaried position with the Professional Referee Organization, he reluctantly decided to retire from teaching. He wanted to referee international matches, and he was aware of FIFA’s preference for officials with full-time referee jobs.

Mark once confessed that his experiences as a teacher made a significant contribution to his success as a soccer referee. He remarked that math is about quantity, structure, space, and change, and that is also true of  the dynamics on the soccer field. He said that maintaining order and clarity in a classroom of gifted, confident students is not that different from fairly governing a game for 22 of the world’s most gifted and talented soccer players. “When I was in the classroom, it was 25 or 30 students each with a different learning style,” he has said. “On the soccer field you have 22 different players, each with different personalities. So it’s about recognizing what’s going to work with a particular player and then implementing that,” he observed. “The situations that are in the grey areas, preventing players from taking that next step, communicating with them, managing them, working with them” is what a good referee brings to the game, he continued.

Mark has been recognized as one of the best professional soccer referees in the business. He worked the  Olympics games in 2012 and four matches during the U-20 World Cup finals in Colombia, which culminated in his officiating the championship game. The U-20 final marked the first time an American official refereed a major FIFA men’s tournament championship. Mark also officiated the FIFA’s Club World Cup in Morocco, and he worked the fifth-place match between the Egyptian and the Mexican clubs. Later Mark served as the fourth official at the championship game. He was also selected to officiate the 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup in Russia, and the 2018 FIFA World Cup. For his outstanding work as a referee, Mark was selected the Major League Soccer Referee of the Year in both 2011 and 2014.

In 2019, Mark retired from refereeing and accepted a position within PRO as the director of senior match officials.

NYC STEM teacher Karen Heil earns 2024 Big Apple Award

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For exemplary work in the classroom, middle school STEM teacher Karen Heil has earned a 2024 Big Apple Award from the New York City Department of Education. Photo Credit: City Island Oyster Reef

The New York City Department of Education (NYC DOE) does a commendable job of recognizing their most outstanding public school teachers. This year, they have honored nearly 50 classroom educators who work in New York City. One of these is Karen Heil, a middle school science teacher who has been named a recipient of their 2024 Big Apple Award.

Karen’s career as an educator spans 25 years. She currently teaches at P.S. 175 City Island. There she serves as an advisor with City Island Oyster Reef in their Billion Oyster Project. The program is dedicated to restoring oysters to the local waters, not for consumption but for the significant role that oysters play in improving the marine environment. Each adult oyster can filter up to 50 gallons a day, which in turn promotes a healthy, resilient marine ecosystem. With Karen’s leadership and the work conducted in her outdoor classroom, her students have helped to nurture a living shoreline.
The indefatigable teacher believes that every public school should create opportunities for its students to connect with the city’s natural environments. “It is important that all of New York City embrace taking more field trips to get out [near the water], even if you can’t do it like we are [at City Island], to at least give kids perspective that it is such an important part of our history,” asserts Karen.
In another project, Karen asked her students to create illustrated comics featuring a particular mineral as a hero. The students then gave each hero  a superpower based on the rock’s unique properties. Then the middle schoolers dressed up as their chosen mineral and created trading cards featuring the rock and its properties. “The kids loved autographing their trading cards and sharing them with each other,” says Karen. In this way, she believes, she was making learning joyful for her students, and instilling confidence in them as independent learners.

Karen earned a Bachelor’s degree Chemistry and another Bachelor’s degree in Exercise Science in 1987, both from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She earned her Master’s degree in Secondary Education and Teaching from Mercy University in 2001.