Tag Archives: STEM teachers

Florida’s Katrina Madok garners prestigious PAEMST honor

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Fifth grade teacher Katrina Madok of Key West, Florida, has garnered a prestigious 2022 PAEMST honor. Photo Credit: keys news.com

I always enjoy sharing stories about exceptional educators who have earned accolades for their work in the classroom. One of these is Katrina Madok, an elementary STEM teacher from Key West, Florida. She has garnered a  2022 Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching (PAEMST). This prestigious award honors the dedication, hard work, and important role that America’s teachers play in supporting learners who will become future STEM professionals, including computer technologists, climate scientists, mathematicians, innovators, space explorers, and engineers.

Katrina teaches science to fifth graders at Gerald Adams Elementary School. Her students are part of the Gifted Education program there. She has also taught at Marathon High School and Kesher Academy, an independent Jewish Day School for students with learning disabilities and developmental delays. Before moving to Florida, Katrina taught in Southern California for ten years. In all, her career as an educator has spanned more than 30 years.

In her classroom, Katrina creates curriculum that involves hands-on science investigations, regularly incorporating STEM challenges. She advances environmental education through school-wide recycling, gardening, and endangered species awareness projects. She also integrates coding and robotics activities on her campus, leading to the creation of after-school bots and coding groups. In these groups, students as early as kindergarten actively use a variety of robots to engage critical thinking skills and learn the foundations for coding.

Katrina has contributed to her school in other ways, too. She has written several grants, she has served as an advisory board member at Infiniscope for two years, she has coached Odyssey of the Mind Teams, and she has participated in citizen science projects with her students. She has also presented at local, state, and national conferences on topics related to robotics and STEM.

In addition to her PAEMST honors, Katrina has earned numerous other accolades for her work as an educator. Last year, she was selected by NASA to help lead a program called Inifiniscope. The program provides exploratory science activities and lessons using experts in NASA data and NASA subject matter. In 2014, she garnered the Elementary Florida Ag in the Classroom Award. She has also been recognized numerous times by the Monroe County School District, the Key West Chamber of Commerce, the state of Florida and a host of other national science programs.

Katrina earned a Bachelor’s degree in Liberal Arts and her Master’s degree in Special Education, both from the University of California at San Diego.

To read more about Katrina Madok, click this link to an article about her published on keysnews.com.

Idaho’s Courtney Greene garners prestigious PAEMST

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Fifth grade STEM educator Courtney Greene of Idaho, shown here assisting a student in directed inquiry, has garnered a prestigious 2022 Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching. Photo Credit: Coeur d’Alene Post Falls Press.

It is always my pleasure to share stories about exceptional educators who have earned accolades for their work in the classroom. One of these is Courtney Green, an elementary STEM teacher from Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. She has garnered a prestigious 2022 Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching (PAEMST).

Courtney currently teaches fifth grade at Fernan STEM Academy. Previously she taught at Bryan Elementary, Hayden Meadows Elementary, Sorensen Elementary, and Bovill Elementary. Her career as an educator spans 21 years.

Courtney’s passion for inquiry has led to partnerships with the Coeur d’Alene Tribe and the University of Idaho to create authentic, place-based learning experiences for her students. Her class’s latest inquiry unit was a case study of a local creek system, which had students as collaborators with the community conservation water management team led by tribal scientists.

Courtney says she is especially interested in the environment, and the local ecosystem is her passion. She says she wants students to ask their own questions and wonder about the world so they will take ownership of their own learning. “Kids are natural scientists because they do ask all those questions,” asserts Courtney.”“So almost everything we start with is framed around questions.” Then she takes the standards and turns them into questions that students can ask more questions about.

In addition to her work in the classroom, Courtney has conducted presentations about inquiry-based learning pedagogy at the Northwest Council for Computer Education, the Idaho Education Technology Association, and the Idaho STEM Action Center’s ISTEM conference. She also leads professional development workshops to support teachers in creating science storyline units. Furthermore, she is an active member of the Idaho Science Teachers Association.

Courtney earned her Bachelor’s degree in Education from the University of Idaho.

To learn more about Courtney Greene, see this article about her published by the Coeur d’Alene Post Falls Press.

Michigan teacher Bridget Zahradnik garners 2022 PAEMST Award

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Elementary school science teacher Bridget Zahradnik of Novi, Michigan, has garnered a prestigious 2022 PAEMST Award. Photo Credit: PAEMST

It is always my pleasure to share stories about exceptional educators who have earned recognition for their work in the classroom. One of these is Bridget Zahradnik, an elementary school science teacher from Michigan who has garnered a 2022 Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching (PAEMST).

Bridget has been a professional educator for 24 years. Currently she teaches fifth grade math and science at Novi Meadows Elementary in Novi, Michigan. Previously, she taught first and third grades for 19 years at Parkview Elementary School. Prior to that, she taught Spanish for a year at Village Oaks and Orchard Hills Elementary Schools in Detroit, and first grade at both J.S. Slocum Elementary School in Pineville, Louisiana, and McKinley Elementary School in Corona, California.

The honored educator has worked diligently to improve science instruction in her school district, declares Steve Mathews, Superintendent of Novi Community Schools. “Bridget Zahradnik has been instrumental in updating our science curriculum and a strong advocate for engaging science instruction,” he says. “She has helped move our district science curriculum forward and improved science instruction, especially at the elementary level,” he continues. Matthews notes that Bridget was instrumental in transforming the traditional science fair to an “invention convention.” This event requires students to develop creative solutions to a problem each on has selected. In some cases, the students’ solutions have resulted in patents, including one for a healthy lollipop and another for a LEGO sorter. In addition, Bridget launched a fundraising drive to pay for outdoor learning spaces in Novi. Because of her efforts, her district received a $400,000 grant to fund the project.

In addition to her work in the classroom, Bridget serves as her District’s Science Content Area leader, designs and delivers professional development, and works as an educational consultant. She has also published numerous articles about science instruction, makerspaces, project-based learning, and subject matter integration.

Bridget earned her Bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education in 1996 and her Master’s degree in Curriculum and Instruction in 2002, both from Michigan State University.

The PAEMST program, founded in 1983, is administered by the National Science Foundation (NSF) on behalf of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. The honor comes with a $10,000 cash prize.

STEM teacher Todd Knight named Idaho’s 2022 Teacher of the Year

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Middle school STEM teacher Todd Knight of Meridian, Idaho, has been named his state’s 2022 Teacher of the Year. Photo Credit: Todd Knight

It is always my pleasure to share the story of a teacher who has earned honors for their stellar work in the classroom. One of these is Todd Knight, a middle school STEM teacher from Meridian, Idaho. He has been named his state’s 2022 Teacher of the Year.

Todd is a native of Meridian. After his graduation from Meridian High School, Todd earned his Bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education from Boise State University in 2008. He earned his Master’s degree in Curriculum and Instruction in STEM Education from Concordia University in 2015.

After substitute teaching for a year and a half in Meridian’s West Ada School District, he taught fourth grade at the District’s Star Elementary and then fifth grade at River Valley Elementary School. In 2014, Todd accepted a teaching position at Crossroads Middle School. There he currently teaches physical science, engineering technology and robotics, and coding to sixth, seventh, and eighth graders. For the past five years, has served as the Digital Technology Lead and Chair of the Science Department. Previously, he also served as the Math Intervention Lead and as a mentor teacher in science.

As a teacher of middle schoolers, Todd says he strives to relate the content he teaches to the everyday lives of his students. “I take a hands-on approach and try and get students to see that learning is not just sitting in a desk doing book work,” he explains. “We talk about learning permits and learning how to drive, then we start talking about how a motor works or why there are spoilers on some vehicles,” he continues. “We start looking at their life and relating it to the curriculum and the content that I’m teaching.”

Good work, Todd!

IL educator Brandy Hempen garners prestigious PAEMST honors

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Elementary school educator Dr. Brandy Hempen of Illinois has garnered prestigious 2022 PAEMST honors. Photo Credit: Illinois Association of Regional Superintendent of Schools.

I am always excited to share stories about exceptional educators who have earned accolades for their work in the classroom. One of these is Dr. Brandy Hempen, an elementary school teacher who has garnered a 2022 Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching (PAEMST).

At the time of her nomination for the PAEMST in 2020, Brandy was teaching at Germantown Elementary School in Germantown in southern Illinois. In a career that has spanned ten years, she has taught in grades three, five, seven, and eight. She also served as a curriculum coordinator and instructional coach for kindergarten through eighth grade at Germantown Elementary School District 60. In addition to her work in the classroom, Brandy has conducted conferences on a variety of educational topics specializing in teaching mathematics in the 21st century. Currently she is an instructor of educational technology and leadership at the Teachers College at Western Governors University.

Brandy’s PAEMST is not the only recognition she has earned. In 2018, she was one of 27 educators from all over the globe selected by the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development to serve as an Emerging Leader in Education. Additionally, in her early years of teaching, she was selected as an Early Career Educator by the Illinois State Board of Education.

The honored educator credits her fifth grade teacher for planting the idea to become a teacher in her mind. “My fifth grade teacher played a huge role in my life. She couldn’t have kids, so she kind of took me under her wing. I distinctly remember her saying to me one day, ‘You should be a teacher,'” she recalls. While she was working on her Bachelor’s degree, Brandy says, “I was doing my demonstration teaching in a second grade classroom and I fell head over heels in love with this work! As a student teacher, I wasn’t even getting paid, yet I couldn’t wait to wake up and go to work each day. That sealed it for me. I’ve been an educator ever since,” she concluded.

Brandy earned her Bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education, her Master’s degree in Curriculum and Instruction with a concentration in differentiated instruction, and her PhD in Educational Technology and Leadership.