HANFORD, Wash. -Teachers work hard to get students through school and help pave a path to success. A Hanford High School teacher has received attention from the state.
Ed Ufford has been teaching at Hanford High School for over 30 years. He won the STEM Teacher of the Year award from the Washington Industrial Technology Education Association or WITEA.
Ufford said the award is for his work with STEM programs. He teaches everything from woodworking to digital design, all with the goal of helping his students follow their passions.
Ufford said getting this award means the world to him.
“I’m very humbled for it,” said Ufford. “I look across the state, I see a lot of fantastic shop programs out there that doesn’t get the recognition. A lot of these programs I’m taking their ideas, their lesson plans and bringing them into my classroom and making them work for us.”
Ufford said he credits his mentors and colleagues who inspired him to create what he teaches in his classroom.
Ufford also received the Ken Pattie Award, which recognizes a teacher who has been in the profession for more than 25 years.
Ufford said one of the lessons he teaches is guitar building. He said he got involved with a National Science Foundation Building grant from guitar.org.
Ufford said he had to take intense classes to teach how to build them.
He wanted his students to have an opportunity to build guitars, too, so he brought what he learned to the classroom.
“From there, we started with electric guitars,” said Ufford. “The following year, we started doing acoustic ukuleles, and then we did acoustic guitars. It’s just grown from there.”
According to Ufford, he wanted to share what he learned with other teachers across the state. He started hosting workshops during the summer. He said he would show 15 to 20 teachers how to build these instruments to share with their students.
Ufford said building guitars is essential to STEM because a lot of science and math goes into building a working guitar.
