2022 Kansas Master Teacher Karen Stohlmann Henderson

Starting as a math teacher, she went for a physics certificate to apply the advanced math she was teaching. In 2010, when a teacher was needed for the new Principles of Engineering (POE) class, Henderson jumped at the opportunity, which led to Project Lead the Way. “(The program) promised to have what I hoped to create for my students: real world application and problem solving, based on mathematics.”

Henderson found real-world application in her district when she discovered there were 70 cameras in her school’s art department which needed repair. The result? Fifty functioning cameras and 20 left to use as parts – and a considerable savings to the school.

Henderson earned her bachelor’s degree in 1991 and master’s degrees in 1994, both in education from the University of Kansas. She earned a master’s in mathematics in 2008 from the University of Northern Colorado. She became a National Board Certified Teacher in 2019.

As a Project Lead the Way – Principles of Engineering Master Teacher, Henderson found herself in teaching a summer course in Tennessee with 22 NASA employees changing careers due to the ending of the space shuttle program.

“I spent the training, not teaching them content, but pedagogy, while they gave me hours of real-life examples to share with my engineering students.”

“I feel the most success in having reached students who might not have had, or taken, the opportunity to experience engineering education,” she states. With only two girls in her POE classes, she created a female-targeted POE class. The next year, there were 24 girls in it. Henderson then persuaded California Polytechnic State University to bring its Femineer program to her district. Along with 20 school districts in California, USD 229 offers this three-year engineering program to female students initially, and expanded the program to include all under-represented populations.

Now, with a network of engineers, carpenters, electricians, the program has added teachers and nearly 50 students have completed the program are preparing for STEM-based careers.