Floyd County STEM teacher to be recognized on national television

FLOYD COUNTY, Ky. (WYMT) - One Floyd County teacher is being recognized for her dedication and passion for STEM education next Saturday.

Tabitha Berger is a teacher at the Floyd County School of Innovation in Martin. At the school, she helps students realize their passions in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields.

“The cool thing here is that I get to see them find that passion and then, unlike when I would help with just math, or I would teach just math, I get to help see them go beyond, like, what are they going to do when they leave me?” said Berger.

Berger wants to help students explore those passions with different programs and extend these programs to younger students, but funding is in short order. Thanks to the Infosys Foundation, Berger was recently awarded a $10,000 grant to help advance the education of her students.

“We’re able to buy supplies to not only help our students learn, but it gives them those skills that they need as they go out to get these jobs,” said Berger.

The grant comes as part of Berger’s recent Infy Makers Award from the Infosys Foundation, and Berger herself is also an alumnus of the foundation’s professional teachers development program, the Pathfinders Institute.

With the help of the grant, Berger’s goal of starting a robotics team at three Floyd County middle schools will become a reality and will extend the reach of STEM programs in the school district to younger students.

“We’re going to bring them in to do a robotics competition so we can go ahead and start getting the coding experience, the engineering experience, to those students,” said Berger.

Along with winning the prestigious award, Berger will also be recognized on national television on CBS’s Mission Unstoppable, showcasing her work, as well as the work of her students.

“They can not only see those fields, but they see the opportunities and we can showcase what it is that they’re doing here because our students are truly doing some amazing things,” said Berger.

Berger’s segment on Mission Unstoppable will air next Saturday, Feb. 18 at 10:30 a.m. EST on CBS.

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