Local Teacher named Innovating Teacher of the Year

Rick Outzen

3 weeks ago

Smiling woman in a purple cardigan holds an award in a classroom setting with be-positive posters on the wall behind her.

Education

Santa Rosa Teacher Wins FSU’s First-Ever STEM Innovator Award

Anna Prindle, a fifth-grade teacher at Holley-Navarre Intermediate School, was named the inaugural Innovating Teacher of the Year by FSU’s Florida Center for Research in STEM.

A fifth-grade teacher at Holley-Navarre Intermediate has been recognized statewide for transforming how her students experience science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Anna Prindle received the first-ever Innovating Teacher of the Year award from the Florida Center for Research in STEM (FCR-STEM) at Florida State University. The award was presented at the school on Thursday, May 14.

Prindle brings more than 20 years of teaching experience to the classroom, including time in multiple states, virtual learning environments, and international teaching in Japan. Along the way, she has secured major STEM grants that funded robotics, coding, 3D printing, and other hands-on activities for her students—opportunities that would not have existed otherwise.

What She’s Built at Holley-Navarre

Prindle’s approach goes well beyond individual lessons. As chair of the school’s STEAM Committee, she has grown STEAM Night into a community event drawing more than 450 participants and 170 families. She launched a schoolwide industry panel during Manufacturing Month, connecting students with professionals from GE Vernova and the Doolittle Institute. Her One School, One Project initiative engages nearly 700 students across 35 classrooms in shared engineering design challenges.

Her students consistently demonstrate growth in science and mathematics, with math exceeding district and state averages. What stands out even more is the confidence students develop as learners.

— Principal Ann Thomas

One standout project, “From Code to Creatures,” walks students from coding Ozobots through designing food webs, 3D-printing ecosystem animals, and applying algebraic reasoning to their own creations—blending computer science, life science, and math into a single, coherent learning arc.

Her Uniquely Human Grant project turns the study of human body systems into an immersive investigation using microscopes, stethoscopes, and 3D modeling, with students collecting and analyzing data and connecting scientific understanding to personal identity.

Recognition and What It Means

FCR-STEM is housed within FSU’s Learning Systems Institute. Director Rabieh Razzouk said Prindle exemplifies what inclusive, student-driven STEM education looks like in practice.

About FCR-STEM: The Florida Center for Research in STEM was created by the Florida Legislature and competitively awarded to FSU in 2006. Its mission is to improve STEM teaching and learning in grades K–12, narrow achievement gaps, and increase student pursuit of STEM careers.

Prindle’s recent honors include the Holley-Navarre Intermediate School Teacher of the Year for 2026–2027 and the Air and Space Forces Association Hurlburt Field Elementary Teacher of the Year for 2025. She has also been selected to attend Educators Space Camp this summer and has served as a facilitator in FSU’s InSPIRE initiative across Northwest Florida.

For more information on FCR-STEM and the Learning Systems Institute, visit lsi.fsu.edu

Photo credit Elliott Finebloom/LSI