Cache County School District’s science teachers represented us well at the 2024 Utah Science Teaching Association Awards, winning four distinguished educators awards. Maria Jones, 6th grade teacher at Heritage Elementary School, walked away as the “Outstanding 6th-grade Science Educator.” 

“Maria is just an excellent science teacher,” Heritage Elementary principal Lance Robins said. “She is one of the best I’ve ever worked with. She is excellent with students, excellent with parents, and a great team player. She is just a fabulous teacher, a dream teacher, and she deserves this award so much!”

Jones’ passion for science is reflected in her hands-on lessons, which require students to form hypotheses, which they test and reexamine. A visit to the class revealed a lesson about gravity and inertia, in which she played tug of rope with her students and conducted an experiment using pennies, cups, and paper. Students chattered and asked many questions as they recorded data, revised their original thoughts, and repeated their tests.

Receiving this award is remarkable because Jones is part of Heritage’s dual immersion program and teaches exclusively in Spanish. Her students must assimilate scientific concepts in a second language. She succeeds in this endeavor because her students engage eagerly in each experiment and case study. Jones is eager to praise her students rather than herself. “They are the ones who really do the hard work,” she noted. “I love getting them really excited about science and doing it in Spanish!”

“Sra. Jones is awesome,” one student said. “I like how we do lots of experiments and activities. She makes science cool.”