The Presidential Award shines a national spotlight on creative, effective, and joyful learning happening everyday in science and mathematics education. Beyond building public awareness, it inspires and encourages teachers and students. It shows how learning, teamwork, and determination can impact the world one student and one lesson at a time. Like the engineering design process, we continually "ask, imagine, plan, create, and improve." Daily small steps add up and take us to great destinations!

Kimberly Menard Lakeville, MN | K-6, Science, 2022

The official biography below was current at the time of the award.

Kimberly "Kim" Menard has been the STEM specialist for 10 years at Lake Marion Elementary School. During six of those years she also served as Gifted Education Specialist, in addition to being in Gifted Education alone for one year. Before joining the STEM team, Kim's classroom experience included a year of teaching AM kindergarten/PM gifted program and a year of teaching fourth grade at Akin Road Elementary School, six years of teaching fifth grade at Farmington Elementary School, and four years teaching kindergarten at North Trail Elementary School. As a STEM specialist, Kim sees more than 600 first through fifth graders each week for lessons in coding, robotics, and standards-based science that culminate in a final engineering challenge. Kim supports classroom teachers with special projects and standard implementation and co-teaches kindergarten STEM with fellow teachers. Kim's passion for the environment moved her to create and lead a "Green Team" that would create outdoor learning spaces and inspire teachers to take learning outdoors. Due to a strong interest from her students, she formed a before-school solar club for the fifth graders to investigate rooftop solar arrays as a school possibility and present their findings to the school board. Recently, those former students toured the new array that now provides 98% of the school's electricity. Kim earned her B.A. in elementary education from Bethel University, her M.Ed. from Saint Mary's University of Minnesota, and her STEM certificate from the University of St. Thomas. She is certified in elementary education.

Know a great teacher like Kimberly Menard? Nominate them for PAEMST!