December 12, 2024
By BARTON HENLEY
Rutherford County Schools
Rocky Fork Middle library media specialist Rachel Hibdon recently received the middle Tennessee Computer Science Excellence Award from the Tennessee STEM Innovation Network.
Rocky Fork Middle principal Jennifer Clark and teachers from the school nominated Hibdon for the award.
“I always try and bring computer science into anything that I'm teaching,” Hibdon said. “An example is 7th grade ELA had a poetry unit recently. They came to the library to complete Code.org Poem Art- where students picked a poem to illustrate the meaning of through coding. They were able to completely animate their poem with moving text, sounds, background images, and more. We've also tied in CS and STEM with ESL classes who finished a book study of Wishtree and then used TinkerCad to design a tree that represented them that we were able to 3D print it. I'm gearing up to teach a National Parks unit featuring STEM, Makerspace, and CS skills with Lego Education kits in the library this spring thanks to a grant from Batelle and TVA.”
Hibdon believes it is great to show teachers that computer science can be incorporated into any subject area.
This is Hibdon’s 12th year with RCS and her first year at Rocky Fork Middle School.
“It means a lot to be recognized by Tennessee STEM Innovation Network,” Hibdon said. “I've been blessed to be involved in lots of their programming as a participant and as a consultant. To be recognized by other computer science and STEM leaders makes me want to keep striving and keep learning to bring the best of computer science education to our RCS students. I think it's super important for their futures to have skills in this growing industry. Computer science reaches a lot of students that maybe have not found an interest yet, and this interest can turn into a career.”
To learn more about Tennessee STEM Innovation Network, go to https://www.tsin.org.