Student Voices on STEM Careers and the Joy of Learning
Behind the Scenes with the Students of Our PreK-12 Pathfinder Award Winner, Dr. Melissa Collins
Dr. Melissa Collins, a second-grade teacher at John P. Freeman Optional School in Memphis, Tennessee, is the K-12 recipient of our 2024 McGraw Hill Pathfinder Award. The program honors educators who bring innovation and inventiveness in their approach to teaching, helping learners discover their unique path to success.
While we could talk about Dr. Collins and her incredible programs all day — from her Future Leaders of STEM program to her beloved white coat ceremonies — we decided to go straight to those who understand her work the best: her students.
As we continue to explore what motivates, engages, and fulfills students through our Joy of Learning series, we found that Dr. Collins’s students experience profound joy in learning just about every day at school. Here’s what they told us — about why they love school, why they all have ambitious career goals for when they grow up, and how Dr. Collins has done such an artful job of making learning joyful.
First, we spoke with a few of Dr. Collins’s second-graders, Nolan, Kingston, and Julian. Nicholas, a third grader and former student, also joined us.
Can you tell us why Dr. Collins is such a good teacher?
Nolan: I like doing times tables!
Nicholas: I’ve also been teaching him times tables.
Kingston: I like going to the movies! [After some clarification from Dr. Collins about the question] Oh! I love everything.
Julian: I liked the coding cars we used with the different colored mats.
Nicholas: I remember that.
Kingston: Those were really fun!
Julian: We also have our own lab coats, and we sometimes talk to people on the big screen, maybe scientists or doctors, and we usually get a lot of information from them.
That’s so cool! Do they help you decide what you want to be when you grow up?
Kingston: The career I want to have when I grow up would be an artist because I love to draw.
Dr. Collins sent Kingston to go grab his Vision Plan project.
Julian: When I grow up, I want to be a U.S. Military Pilot in the United States Military. I’m fascinated with the F-4 Raptor and the F-4 Falcon.
Nolan: When I grow up, I want to be a robotics engineer.
Kingston returned with his Vision Plan while Nolan and Julian went to find theirs.
Kingston: This is about me being an artist, because it says, “When I grow up, I want to be an artist or a graphic designer.” My mom helped me do my project. Oh, and his lights up, it’s really good!
Nolan had returned with his Vision Plan.
Those look great. It’s clear you worked hard on those.
Kingston: Yeah, we both did! I made this painting in the back. I talked to an artist, and to a person who made books. We talked to a lot of people these years.
Nolan: We talked to an engineer from…. [with some help] Lockheed-Martin. He was in Orlando, Florida. He had us draw a picture to show what we’re going to be when we grow up. I don’t know if they wanted to be an engineer, but I did!
Dr. Collins let us know that the Lockheed-Martin engineer was one of her former students.
Dr. Collins: Nicholas, you went on a field trip to Geotech recently. What did you like about it?
Nicholas: I like that they showed us what we can be when we grow up.
After a show-and-tell of their white coats and pins, the students began showing us the arcade games they had built for a STEM project.
Julian: This is a basketball game, and I have my smiley face tickets here. Next week we’re going to set up an arcade and invite the other classes to the room, and they’re going to play our games.
I bet you used a lot of math and science to build those games.
Julian: We had to measure the right lengths to make the parts of it. And I painted this.
Kingston: And I have made my board game, which is called the Kindness Game!
Wow! You designed that by yourself?
Kingston: Well, my mom helped me a little bit.
Dr. Collins: Dr. Collins makes you do a lot of projects every quarter!
Kingston: Yeah, but I like the projects, they’re really fun.
If you could design a whole school day, what would you do at school?
Julian: That’s a good one! So, I would come to school, go to class, and get 100% on every test I get!
Dr. Collins: But what if you could tell me what you wanted to do all day?
Julian: I would want to talk to more people, like scientists, on the big screen, so I can get more information about the world and how it works.
Nolan: I would like to do more multiplication!
Dr. Collins: But you can’t multiply all day. What would you want to do all day to help you be a better learner?
Kingston: Well, I was going to say “learn,” but we do that! So I would like to do new things. I enjoy doing multiplication, math, reading, measuring, times tables, book reports… yeah, I like that!
Nolan: I would like to skip count!
Okay, we have one more question for you: What makes you excited about going to school?
Kingston: Everything!
Julian: You can’t say “everything” every time!
Kingston: Well, math, reading, games…
Julian: I like Kahoot! … I get happy when I see my friends, and I also get happy when I see the sign [pointing to a wall in Dr. Collins’s room] that says ‘Our Happy Place’ because it makes it makes me feel nice, because this is our happy place.
Kingston: Mmhmm! We’ve got a lot of nice stuff here. I like it. I love this school, I’ll never get tired of it.
We then spoke with three of Dr. Collins’s former students, Emma, Marlon, and Evan. Emma and Evan were just wrapping up seventh grade, and Marlon was just wrapping up third.
Do you know what you want to be when you grow up?
Emma: I’d like to be either a neurosurgeon or a forensic scientist.
Marlon: I either want to be an engineer or a chemotherapist.
Evan: I want to be an aerospace technician.
What makes Dr. Collins such a good teacher?
Evan: Her drive to make sure that we all learn. Even when we’re not her students, she’ll make sure that we try to learn.
Marlon: Her commitment to make sure that we have fun in learning no matter what happens, even if we’re having a bad day. Even if we’re not with her, she’ll still feel the love in her heart.
Emma: I think what makes Dr. Collins a great teacher is her ability to keep students engaged, even if we’re not all on the same level or if someone is having difficulty with something, she’ll make sure we’re all on board before she moves on to something more difficult. She’ll make sure not to leave a student behind.
What do you think it means to be engaged in your learning? What does that feel like?
Evan: I feel engaged when I’m confident that I understand what I’m working on.
Emma: Being engaged is having an understanding of something and being in your own world.
Marlon: It’s just feeling like no one is left behind…. I just loved second grade. If I could, I’d go back!
What makes you excited to go to school in the morning?
Marlon: I like it when we do projects in groups. I’d wake up and rush into school so I can do projects like that with Dr. Collins — or field trips. I know anything I do with Dr. Collins is going to be fun.
Evan: Just the ability to get outside of the school. Or not even outside of school, but when we have speakers come and talk to us.
Emma: When we go outside of school or have someone come speak to us from outside of school we get to show what we’ve learned. If it’s a field trip, with all the instruction leading up to the field trip, it allows us to share some of the knowledge we have and ask intellectual questions.
When you face challenges at school, what do you do to overcome challenges?
Emma: I used to not want to ask questions because I was used to figuring things out on my own. But as school progressively got more challenging, I still thought I could do it on my own — and for the most part I could, but for some things, I would just sit there and get more frustrated. I wouldn’t be able to complete my work because I’d be stuck on one thing. But I learned how to ask questions. My teachers can help me out, or some of my peers. And if someone else gets frustrated, you can help them out by giving them that information too.
Evan: Usually at the beginning of the year, teachers ease into it by reviewing what we did last year. But then it gets more difficult as we move onto new topics. To overcome that, I just look back to what we learned last year and see how that correlates to what we’re currently learning.
Marlon: When I started third grade this year, multiplication was the thing that had me. I just referred back to second grade and at the very end of the year we practiced skip counting, and I used that to pass most of my tests.
Tell us about the White Coat Ceremony you did with Dr. Collins.
Marlon: Dr. Collins would keep our white coats on a rack in the corner of the room. Then every time we would do a science project, she’d have us go put our coats on so we would feel like we’re real scientists. And then we do our problems the way that scientists would. In Future Leaders of STEM, we feel the exact same way we did in second grade.
Emma: And every time we had a STEM-related speaker come, we’d put the coats on and ask questions. Now every year, in Future Leaders of STEM, we have a white coat ceremony and pinning of the white coats. It makes you feel empowered, like you could actually be a scientist one day.
Evan: This year, we had actual medical students that came and pinned us for the ceremony. That helped us understand what we could achieve.
What’s your favorite spot in the school building you’re in right now?
Marlon: I’m in my happy place right now! Dr. Collins’s room. I loved it here back in second grade. Every day when I got to school I knew it would be fun, no matter what.
Evan: For me, it’s the band room, because that’s where I get to express myself — with my trumpet.
Emma: Mine would be Dr. Collins’s room or the STEM Innovator’s room. In STEM Innovators we get to talk about STEM-related things. You get to express yourself more or ask questions about your future profession to STEM-related speakers. We have new speakers monthly and it’s really exciting, because they talk about mentorships or internships.
If you could give advice to a student who did not have Dr. Collins, and didn’t have the opportunities to talk to STEM leaders or have a white coat ceremony, what would you want them to know?
Emma: I would say to be confident in your answers. Make wise choices and be confident in them. Before I was in Dr. Collins’s class, even when I knew the answer, I was still scared — what if I got it wrong? But Dr. Collins taught me how to be confident in my answers, and when I did get it right, to be proud of that.
Evan: To not be afraid to get out and learn outside of the classroom. Go places and learn from people who have actually experienced a career.
Marlon: I would just tell them to keep picking yourself up and don’t stop. Because even when life and times are tough, there’s still a chance there, so that’s why you should just keep going. There’s a chance.
An advocate for equity and inclusion, Melissa Collins believes everyone should have a voice at the table, including the elementary and middle school students at the John P. Freeman Optional School in Memphis. As an educator for over 25 years, Melissa’s passions lie in making her students feel valued and empowered, and it’s the driving force behind her “Future Leaders of STEM” program, which she initiated to inspire young students to pursue careers in STEM fields. Through this program, Melissa organizes events such as the White Coat Ceremony, where students are mentored by STEM professionals, fostering a sense of belonging and inspiration. Melissa’s teaching philosophy emphasizes the importance of hands-on experiences and collaboration. She believes in providing her students with real-world exposure to STEM professions, organizing field trips, and facilitating interactions with professionals in the field.
For more on Dr. Collins and the 2024 McGraw Hill Pathfinder award winners, see:
For more on how students view the Joy of Learning, see:
