AFA National Teachers of the Year Go Worldwide

October 30, 2024   |   By Susan Mallet

All of AFA’s National Teachers of the Year (TOY), past and present, continue to make great strides in STEM education throughout the United States—but some are taking their extraordinary passion for STEM beyond the American border.

Ken Robinson, the second-place National Teacher of the Year in 2024, is from Ramstein, Germany. He is a dynamic force in education, always pushing the envelope for positive change – connecting educators and students throughout Europe with innovative programs, challenging competitions, and other organizational resources and programs as a DOD STEM Ambassador and blogger which impacts educators globally. Robinson recently joined a Civil Air Patrol squadron in Ramstein and is assisting his students in joining as CAP cadets, which brings a plethora of additional scholarship and flight training opportunities for the students. Read more about Ken’s amazing international work here.

AFA National Teachers of the Year Go Worldwide
The Nigerian team of Blackstone-Smith, Hines, IH Towers team member, Swartzendruber, and Tucker with Nigerian students. (Courtesy Photo)

Meanwhile, a group of exceptional AFA Teachers of the Year awardees recently traveled to Brazil and Nigeria to provide STEM instruction, career exploration, and hope to the teachers and students there. Both trips were coordinated by AFA’s 2014 National TOY, Kaci Heins, Executive Director of Limitless Space Institute (LSI). Sponsored by LSI and IHS Towers (one of the largest independent owners, operators, and developers of shared communications infrastructure in the world), the impact on the educators and the youth was life-changing. 

Four other previous TOY awardees joined Heins on the trips to South America and Africa:

  • Megan Tucker (Va.), 2021 National TOY
  • Ashlie Blackstone-Smith (Mich.), 2021 Second-Place National TOY
  • Meredith Swarzendruber (Del.), 2016 Second-Place National TOY
  • Jackie Blumer (Ill.), 2024 Illinois State TOY

From basic aerodynamic and space-related experiments using Bernoulli’s Principle and Newton’s Laws of Motion to new technology applications, the dynamic AFA teacher team provided Nigerian and Brazilian educators and students with a broad range of skills. The exercises included a solar sail design challenge, various rocketry experiments, electronic circuitry testing, space payload prioritization, and a tangram communication challenge.

As AFA members live and serve across the globe, so do AFA’s STEM ambassadors—providing partnerships to help inspire a new generation of teachers and students, on American soil and abroad.