Kim Collazo Shares Earned Wisdom: STEM Education and the Amazing Potential of All Kids

Every person has a story that teaches valuable lessons. Kim Collazo shares her passion for STEM education, authoring STEM picture books, and her belief that kids can do amazing things.

In her responses below, she offers some great advice. I really appreciate her taking the time to share them with me. Kim has also been a great supporter of Why Edify, and I am very grateful for that.

Tell us a little about yourself, including your experience in education/lifelong learning and anything else you’d like to share.

I grew up in upstate Vermont building snow forts in the front yard and cross-country skiing on beautiful snowmobile trails traversing our rural town's hills and forests. My father was a lifelong educator as were my grandparents and several aunts and uncles on both sides of the family, so I was determined I would NOT be an educator! Fate had other plans and I spent 32 wonderful years teaching elementary kids, mostly 5th grade. Having always been inspired by my father’s love of science, I attained a Master’s degree in elementary education with an emphasis in science, National Board Certification, and a Kenan Fellowship with researchers at NC State University studying educator-created online, immersive, multi-player science games. For the last decade of my career, I pursued my love of meaningful elementary STEM integration. I happily accepted positions within my district which allowed me to guide other educators to integrate STEM and start elementary STEM labs in multiple schools.

I have always been interested in researching and creating greater access for girls to pursue their early interest in the STEM pathway. I started a girls' afterschool club, GigaGirls, through which each third through fifth-grade girl was matched with a female computer science mentor from various universities including NC State, UNC Chapel Hill, and Stanford University. The girls carried out coding challenges and communicated via blog and vlog posts weekly with their university mentors. The year always ended with a field trip to NC State’s Computer Science Department where the girls got to tour the campus, meet their mentors, and celebrate accomplishments face to face. Several years later, my good colleague Carrie Robledo and I started a similar club with drones. GLIDE (Girls Leading Innovation with Drones and Engineering) met once a week during which time 3-5th grade girls learned to fly and solve real-world problems with drones. Sharing our process and products on social media led to a great collaboration with Drone Legends, a company whose purpose is to bring out the legendary in every kid through the power of drones. Since retiring in 2023, I have been working remotely with Drone Legends as part of their amazing curriculum design team, which has allowed me to continue to share my passion for elementary STEM education.

In addition to being a STEM educator, I am also a published STEM picture book author. Two books in the Emersyn Blake series (based on my granddaughter), EMERSYN BLAKE AND THE SPOTTED SALAMANDER and EMERSYN BLAKE AND THE STALKED JELLYFISH have been released and were written to help educators integrate STEM into their daily literacy program. They each spotlight an endangered species living in a particular habitat and introduce readers to relevant STEM careers associated with the study of these creatures. In addition, I published BEASTIES OF THE TREE HOLLOWS to encourage kids to get out and explore nature around them.

So much for NOT being an educator! What a wonderful ride it has been!

What have you learned from someone you know that has made you a person?

I was lucky over my 32 years to have three administrators who stood out among all the rest in how they influenced my career and passion for teaching. The thing they had in common was that they all accepted and encouraged my outside-the-box teaching ideas. If I believed something could improve my students’ love of learning, they let me try it! In addition to giving the green light, their doors were always open to conversations about how it was going and what we could change TOGETHER to make it work even better. One of them once asked me, “If not you, then who?” This helped empower me and led to so many more successful opportunities for my students. I will always be thankful for their leadership and support. So to those of you with new ideas and imaginative ways to educate your students, I say GO FOR IT! If not you, then who?

What “earned wisdom” do you have that others can benefit from?

According to Candace Osmond in her article on the Grammarist, the phrase “Raise the Bar” is an idiom that dates back to 1900 in reference to high jump and pole vault events where the bar was continually raised to see how high the athlete could still attain success. In education, we often hear colleagues or others in the public state things like, “My kids are too young for that,” or “Our kids can’t do that.” I often heard this as a STEM lab teacher during curriculum collaboration meetings with classroom teachers and administrators or during my presentations at conferences - and I’m sure many of you have too. I challenge everyone whose first urge is to make those statements to reconsider. Our elementary students, even our preschoolers and kindergartners, can do some amazing things, like coding, engineering, robotics, and science! They are naturally curious, naturally open to reiterating, and naturally willing to try new things if WE provide the appropriate scaffolds and encouragement! Just watch young children at play. Many times it is the unsure adult in the room who unintentionally places barriers to some pretty advanced learning that our children are capable of mastering. In addition to raising the bar on our expectations, we also need to step back and allow failure to happen. As educators, it is often hard for us not to provide the answer as soon as the task becomes difficult. To swoop in with comments like, “I don’t think that’s going to work,” or “You should try this instead.” We feel so uncomfortable watching children struggle. But often, that child’s very growth comes with the productive struggle, the learning to collaborate with their peers to find a new solution, the awkward failures, and eventually the euphoric success! We need to raise the bar on our expectations and allow for productive failure so our students can achieve their fullest capability.

What personal or professional development book (or both) would you recommend? Why?

I would highly recommend Dr. Amanda Sullivan’s book, BREAKING THE STEM STEREOTYPE. It is filled with her research on how stereotypes impact young girls’ interest and performance in STEM fields and how we as educators and members of society can work to change these damaging practices. From the blue and pink aisles in many stores to subconscious things we do in our classrooms and with our own children, this book will have you thinking!

What is your favorite song on your morning commute to work? (or in general, if you’re retired)

It has always been a favorite, but Anna Nalick’s song, Breathe, holds an even more special place for me after this past year. I was diagnosed with, battled, and beat breast cancer in 2024. Throughout the year my daily mantra was, “You are brave. You are strong. You can do this.” Breathe was definitely my go-to tune!

Feel free to add anything else that you think would be helpful to others.

If you are an educator you have been called to one of the most challenging yet rewarding professions. Having been there myself for 32 years, I know the times we are in right now are extremely difficult for many reasons we cannot control. I personally thank you for your dedication to our children. You are brave! You are strong! Thank you for what you do every day. I see you!

You can learn more about me and follow my books and blog at collazocove.com!

Maybe you’re interested in sharing some of your “earned wisdom.” If so, let’s get in touch. I look forward to sharing your story with the Why Edify community.

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