In Our Teacher Q&A, Mentor Teacher Gail Brazile Discusses the Importance of STEM Education for Children Today
Ms. Gail Brazile, a Mentor Teacher at the John L. Ory Magnet School in La Place, Louisiana, is an educator committed to furthering STEM education. Despite vision in only one eye and struggles with family health issues, Ms. Brazile, 63, earned a bachelor’s degree from Nicholls State University as well as two master degrees – education leadership and reading specialist. A native of Vacherie, Louisiana, the dedicated educator, who lives in St. James Parish but works in St. Johns the Baptist Parish, expects to receive a doctorate degree in a few months. She spoke with STEM Global Action Today about why STEM education must be a priority for students of color.
I believe it’s so important because it provides them with different aspects of learning. For example, in science, technology, engineering and mathematics my 5th grade students had opportunities to broaden their horizons. STEM learning gives them opportunities to ask questions about so many things. They learned to draw conclusions based upon the research, based upon experiments. And, they are learning STEM skills that can be essential to them finding quality jobs and careers in the future.
Are a lot of students intimidated by STEM courses?
Not really. I don’t really find that. This year with STEM NOLA in my classes, they came maybe once a month with virtual learning. The students were engaged with different projects and lessons. Things like exploring how water settles. We started applying the concepts when we reached that part in our studies and they were so engaged because of the hands-on experiences that STEM NOLA had offered. No one was intimidated by any of it.
Mentor Teacher Gail Brazile
Well what I find works with kids is when you can get them engaged. When we do experiments, and they have to draw conclusions, it really get them engaged. They do the experiments themselves and I observe what is happening. They take notes and come up with a hypothesis, statement and conclusion. They just love being able to have their own opinions about what’s going on, but yet they know they have to also support their opinion. That is the challenging part, but they really relate to that kind of scenario.
Is there anything that your school could be doing to improve STEM education?
Definitely. We need to keep the children more engaged. We need more labs for them.
Where did you learn about STEM NOLA?
We discussed it on our District website. The District promoted it and said schools had the opportunity to get it for students. Our school jumped right on it.
It is about how they make the content real for students. Like when they talked about the microscope. They don’t just throw a lot of information at them. They make the microscope come alive. They teach about the things you can accomplish with a microscope, and students are able to visualize it and apply what they have learned. The children remember what they learned in those hands-on sessions with STEM NOLA. They love it. They get so excited when they know STEM NOLA is sending science kits for them to work with. They were so proud to bring those kits home. They couldn’t wait for those once-a-month sessions when they get their kits, do virtual learning from STEM NOLA and get to bring the kits home.
Would you like to see STEM NOLA expanded so that more children could participate?
Definitely. It was the best program that has come to the school for the children. I would also like to see STEM NOLA work with the teachers so we could learn some of their strategies, techniques and approaches and have those successful teaching methods applied to even more classrooms. The teachers would absolutely benefit, and so would the children.