ACESA is actively recruiting qualified professionals to serve as judges for the GCOI Teacher and Future Innovator of the Year Awards. There is a special need for judges representing organic and life sciences. If you have found this page that means you have an interest in participating as a judge.

Governor's Celebration of Innovation

Honoring a Teacher of the Year (AzTOY) has been part of the Arizona landscape for many years, and in the early 2000's the Arizona Technology Council under the leadership of Steve Zylstra, in partnership with the Arizona Commerce Authority headed by Sandra Watson, incorporated this award program into their annual technology awards showcase. The Teacher of the Year award winners represent the best of the best of Arizona educators in STEM and CTE curriculum.

2024 entry information.

Remembering Everett Greenli, past president of ACESA. Everett was the consummate engineering professional. Always looking for opportunities to engage other engineering professionals from the over 60 engineering disciplines represented in Arizona, for the benefit of the engineering community and for the educators and students we serve.

All GCOI Teacher-of-the-Year and Future-Innovator-of-the-Year award recipients are listed here.

Here are some posters and graphics that help tell about science, engineering and careers, royalty free.

Recently, in an on-line forum, a high school teacher asked a simple question. Here are some of the answers from working engineers, and some of the top answers:

• Engineering is worth nothing if the designer/engineer can’t communicate to their clients/users why their product matters.
• Engineering is not all calculations. More often than not, my days are spent reading multiple code provisions.
• Not every engineer needs to do high-level math.
• I'd teach the art of answering questions that aren't designed to be solved. 99% of everything I was asked in high school and 90% of college were questions that led you to the answer.
• Engineering is odd field in that it's so broad you can't really say what it is that they do.

An infographic about what electrical engineers do is available here.

The Phoenix Business Journal has compiled some statistics on the local Engineering economy.

What is STEM? What is CTE? What do these acronym’s stand for? What method(s) are involved in the utilization of and/or application of these concepts?

In today's educational environment, STEM and CTE are sometimes treated as separate disciplines, but underneath there are many similarities. How do we apply these “tools” to educational needs and our everyday environment?

ACESA is expanding and there are volunteer opportunities available right now! All of the three primary projects at ACESA are looking for volunteers.

If you would like to take on some of the planning and execution, or just ask questions, please contact an ACESA board member. You may have seen the ACESA show booth at many of the street fairs and STEM events around the Valley. This year we would like to expand to include the technical societies and associations that are available to our professional colleagues.

To learn more, click here how we use STEM in the military today!