Machin Norris
Machin Norris
Fellowship Placement: National Air and Space Museum
Hometown: Evans, CO
Machin Norris has served as a middle and high school science, STEAM, Agriculture-Natural and Renewable Resources, and Gifted Education teacher in northern Colorado for 11 years. She is currently a STEM Integration Specialist and teaches Senior STEM Capstone, Work-based Learning (WBL), and works closely with families and community resources to assist students in truancy and behavioral modifications for Northridge High School in Greeley, Colorado. Machin is serving her fellowship at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum (NASM).
Prior to graduating from Colorado State University with a Bachelor of Science in Agricultural Education, Machin received her Emergency Medical Technician certificate at Front Range Community College in Fort Collins, Colorado. She spent much of her time, before entering a classroom, working in emergency medicine and veterinary medicine, becoming a Field Training Officer (FTO) and the first female EMT Operations Supervisor for Denver-metro AMR. She specifically focused on developing her operational management and business development skills. In 2003, Machin was awarded EMT of the year. Shortly thereafter, Machin attended Adams State University in Alamosa, in conjunction with the Space Foundation in Colorado Springs, to obtain her STEM/EL certificate. She then became a teacher liaison for the Space Foundation (flight 11-14), participates in the Teacher Flight Envoy program with the Wings Over the Rockies Air and Space Museum, a Civil Air Patrol AEM member, participated in the Smithsonian Teacher Innovator Institute, an educational advisor for OneOrbit, a National Geographic Certified Educator, a Honeywell Space Camp awardee, an NEA grant awardee, a Space Station Ambassador, and was an advisor at the Rice University Envision Aerospace and Aviation summer camp.
Machin has a keen understanding of what hard work looks like and with hard work comes opportunities. She consistently projects that motto to her students and provides them with meaningful opportunities of engagement they might not otherwise have. Learning about student interests and revealing a range of other interests to captivate student thinking and imagination is what keeps her in the classroom. She has spent many hours with students exploring nearby outdoor educational facilities such as Horsetooth Mountain Park where 175 students worked through a series of citizen science collections, taking her gifted group of 25 to the Shambhala Mountain Center in Larimer County, engaging 250 students in the Air Quality Inquiry Project at the University of Colorado, Boulder, utilizing the STEM kits from Colorado State University, and taking over 250 students to-date, from multiple high schools in northern Colorado to the National Space Symposium every year. These are only a few ways in which Machin has been “bringing the outside-in” to her classroom. She believes that ALL students can learn and the more exploration and real-life connections that are made in a classroom, the more students are excited to be there! Machin is most passionate about working with at-risk youth. She desires to continue to develop that work and make connections on how STEAM can be a source of strength through their educational journey.
