Arizona science educators name Yuma’s Colton teacher of year
Elizabeth Colton, the Valley Horizon Elementary School teacher who led a team of girls to a global competition in Silicon Valley this summer, has been named Teacher of the Year by the Arizona Science Teachers Association.
As the state’s top science teacher for the K-6 grades, Colton will be honored later this week during two events at the annual ASTA conference in Gilbert, but beyond that, she isn’t sure if she will get a plaque or any other prize, because she hasn’t had time to ask.
“It’s just really busy being a teacher. I do coach the First Lego League teams, and I’m a co-site coordinator for our afterschool program for the 21st Century Community Learning Center, so I stay for two-and-a-half hours after school working with the kids and doing different things,” she said.
It was her team of fifth- and sixth-graders from Valley Horizon, known as the “Aqua Squad,” which was one of 20 that made it to the First Lego League Global Innovation competition in San Jose, Calif., last June.
They invented an Aqua Box to drop water and other supplies to people stranded in remote areas by plane, which was tested numerous times at the Somerton Airport and other locations, with a 92.9 percent success rate.
Colton is a science lab instructor at the Crane Elementary District school, which means she teaches through hands-on lessons and activities for students in kindergarten all the way through sixth grade, based on the state’s instruction standards for their grade level.
“Kindergarteners and younger kids are naturally curious, which makes them perfect young scientists. So it’s not hard, they engage in science pretty easily, especially when you talk about something they’re already pretty interested in.
“Like when you’re talking about ladybugs, first- and secondgraders are already picking up la-
dybugs off the playground, so when they learn about their life cycles and stuff, they get even more interested,” she said.
Colton, who has also been nominated for Yuma County Teacher of the Year, grew up in Colorado and earned her bachelor’s degree in parks and recreation and youth leadership. This led to jobs working with children in museums and parks and rec programs.
After she and her husband moved to Yuma 13 years ago, a friend suggested she look into teaching jobs at the Crane district. She loved it, and went on to earn a master’s in elementary education from Northern Arizona University to become fully certified.
I did a lot of hands-on activities when I was working at museums and other things like that, so to step into the classroom and be able to go more in-depth is very rewarding,” she said. “That’s why I love my job, seeing the light bulb come on and seeing them intrigued about subjects.
An essay about why she loved her job and the importance of teaching science was one of the things she had to submit once she was nominated for the ASTA award, along with letters of referral and examples of student work.
She was nominated by another science teacher, T.J. Thorpe of Pueblo Elementary School, also in the Crane district.
“He told me he nominated me because of the work that I had been doing at a Title 1 school with very little support, financially, and how I really make things work no matter what,” as well as the success of the First Lego team and other students she’d taught, Colton said.
She’s looking forward to the conference in Gilbert on Thursday and Friday, and is grateful for the recognition.
“I’m really honored to be nominated for this award by a colleague, and I don’t think I could have been where I was if I didn’t have a lot of great people supporting me along the way, especially my family and my husband,” she said.