Naples High engineering teacher receives national award for engaging his classes

Cliff Greer strives to bring the real world into his classroom.  

For his efforts, Greer, lead engineering teacher and engineering academy director at Naples High School, recently was honored. He was selected as a Project Lead The Way outstanding teacher for inspiring, engaging and empowering his students.  

“What I do in my classroom is I try to relate everything to what's happening in the real world,” Greer said. “I never want to get the question of 'Why am I doing this?' or 'Why is this important?' ” 

Project Lead The Way, a nonprofit organization that develops STEM curricula for use by elementary, middle and high schools, chose 40 teachers across the country to honor with the outstanding teacher award this year. Greer was one of two teachers in Florida to receive the award.  

Project Lead The Way communications director Jennifer Erbacher said via email that Greer was chosen because of the “transformative learning experiences” he brings into the classroom.   

All of the outstanding teacher award winners affect the lives of their students and help transform teaching in their classrooms and for the profession as a whole, Erbacher said.  

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Greer has been with Collier County Public Schools since 2010. He started as a math teacher, then switched to engineering about six months later. He is an engineer by trade and moved to the Naples area to work for a construction company. 

Greer learned about the Naples High School Engineering Academy while coaching youth football.  

He did a double take when he was scrolling through emails and received notice from Project Lead The Way that he had won the award, Greer said.  

"It was a pretty cool feeling when I found out,” Greer said. “There’s a couple thousand engineering teachers across the country, so it’s pretty cool."  

The Naples High School Engineering Academy offers four courses, and Greer helps ensure all of them provide real-world experiences.  

An employee from Arthrex is brought into the introduction to engineering course to talk about how he uses the same software the students are learning, Greer said.  

"That helps them realize a person actually uses this software in real life for a living that makes people's lives better,” Greer said.  

Students in the computer-integrated manufacturing course have an opportunity to meet a Naples High School alumnus who owns a milling company.   

“He talks to them about what they make and lets them have free rein looking at the machines his company uses,” Greer said. “He lets them talk to the employees there, and it’s a pretty cool place.”  

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Students from the civil engineering and architecture course visit job sites to learn about the construction and design of houses and other buildings in the Naples area.   

"It's all about giving them a why, so they know what they are doing,” Greer said. “If I gave them worksheets and talked about how much I know about engineering, they wouldn't want to listen.” 

Greer runs his classroom by introducing a topic and talking to the class for about two days a week; the rest of the week is spent working on projects and assignments, with Greer acting as a mentor.  

“It's a lot more open environment, and the kids like it because it keeps them engaged,” Greer said. “If they have something they actually want to work on, then they can do that.”