National Board Certified, Tom Jenkins was a first-generation college student started out in engineering but switched to become a teacher. He strongly believes in the importance of not using "canned" curriculum that has a right/wrong answer. He taught STEM and wants to talk to others about the truth about STEM education. He is passionate about the need for administration to provide quality professional development for their teachers. He recently attended a fishing expedition with industry and has done activities with NASA for authentic experiences to relate to his classroom so that students can learn about what the real world needs are for science education. He teaches for a poor, rural schools but has shown the importance of STEM so much that every student has STEM as a core class every day at the middle school level. He started out teaching science with inquiry but evolved to teaching STEM and believes in personalized student learning. His school implemented his organic curriculum written by the teachers and student and effectively implements team teaching and co-curricular activities. He emphasizes authentic learning and incorporates standards into the curriculum.