Nicole Bolton

Mobile, AL | K-6, Science, 2022

What motivates you to contribute to excellence in STEM teaching?

STEM education empowers students to think creatively, collaborate, and innovate with confidence. As a computer science and robotics teacher, I strive to make these subjects accessible and engaging through hands-on projects, coding challenges, and real-world problem-solving. My goal is to help students build confidence, resilience, and the skills they need to shape the future, not just adapt to it. I want every student to see themselves as a creator, problem-solver, and future innovator.

What has been the most transformative moment that affirmed your impact on STEM education?

One of the most transformative moments in my STEM journey was building our school’s robotics program from scratch. With limited resources and no prior team, we grew from curious beginners to World Championship qualifiers in under four years. At the same time, our computer science program has doubled in student interest, with projects now showcased at the state level. Seeing students thrive, innovate, and gain confidence has affirmed the lasting impact of creating access and opportunity in STEM.

Using your platform as a Presidential Awardee, how do you hope to advance our nation in STEM?

As a Presidential Awardee, I hope to expand access to STEM by sharing strategies for building inclusive, high-impact programs. From growing a robotics team to the world stage to doubling computer science enrollment, I’ve seen how opportunity sparks innovation. I aim to inspire and support educators nationwide to create pathways that empower all students to lead in STEM.

Biography

Nicole Bolton has been an educator in the Mobile County Public School System for over 23 years. She is in her fifth year at Barton Academy for Advanced World Studies, where she currently teaches sixth through ninth grades in STEM, Robotics, and Computer Science (CS). She previously taught third grade at Griggs Elementary for 10 years and served as the pre-kindergarten through fifth-grade CS teacher for six years. Nicole began her teaching career at Florence Howard Elementary School, where she taught fourth and fifth grades and served as the Science Lab Instructor for four years. Nicole is passionate in her commitment to maximizing individual student performance, inspiring student interest in technology, and instilling a sense of self-worth among all. She is passionate about teaching her students to make cross-curricular connections to understand STEAM concepts through project-based learning. She serves as a district technology support teacher and sponsors the following STEM electives: We Build it Better, Technology Team, Robotics Team, E-Sports and Broadcasting Team. Nicole's commitment to lifelong learning is evident in her continuous participation in nationwide professional learning opportunities. She was awarded a Barringer Fellow at Monticello and is an alumnus of the George Washington Teacher Institute and the Colonial Williamsburg Teacher Institute. Nicole also received the Pathfinders Institute Scholarship in 2018 and 2020 for coding and robotics. She is an alumnus of the Teacher Space Academy and most recently served as a teacher mentor at Teacher Space Academy. Nicole has a B.S. in elementary education and an M.S. in educational media and technology from the University of South Alabama. In addition, Nicole holds certification in educational leadership.

High-resolution version of the teacher profile photograph

The views expressed in awardee profiles are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of NSF or the PAEMST program.