Building Passion for STEM

Ever wondered how to transform science education from a classroom afterthought to the centerpiece of student engagement? Brad Rhew has the answers. As the Science and STEM Coordinator for Guilford County Schools and president-elect of the North Carolina Science Teachers Association, Brad brings a wealth of experience to this illuminating conversation. Beginning his career as a middle school teacher, Brad's journey through elementary education and eventually to district leadership showcases his commitment to elevating science instruction at every level.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
Welcome to Spotlight for Success by American Book
Company.
We are here in Charlotte at theNorth Carolina Mid-Level
Educators Conference.
I am Devin Pintosi, your host.
We are here with Brad Rue.
Brad Rue is the Science andSTEM Coordinator with Guilford
County Schools.
That's correct.
Welcome, Brad.

Speaker 2 (00:27):
Thank you for having me.

Speaker 1 (00:28):
Yes, brad, tell us a bit about what brings you today
to NCMLE.

Speaker 2 (00:33):
So I'm here kind of two-folded One as the Science
and STEM Coordinator in GuilfordCounty.
This is a great way for me toconnect with other science
leaders across our state as wellas see what are some new things
that are coming out, especiallywith our new science standards,
to see how other districts arepromoting the standards and what
resources and materials they'reusing to really get their
teachers and students involvedwith the science and engineering

(00:57):
practices, but also as thepresident-elect for the North
Carolina Science TeachersAssociation.
We are also here promoting ourassociation and really hoping to
get more science teachers tocome to our conference and be a
bigger part of our sciencenetwork that we have across the
state.

Speaker 1 (01:14):
And when is that conference coming up?

Speaker 2 (01:17):
The conference is November 6th and 7th in
Winston-Salem.

Speaker 1 (01:21):
Okay, november 6th and 7th in Winston-Salem,
wonderful, and that's for allthe science teachers.

Speaker 2 (01:26):
All the science teachers, kindergarten through
college level, because we havesessions for elementary science,
middle, high school and alsofor pre-service teachers on how
to be a phenomenal scienceteacher when they enter the
classroom.

Speaker 1 (01:39):
Oh, that's fantastic, and tell us a little bit about
your career journey.
You're now now a curriculumcoordinator at district.
What did you do previous tothat and how did you end up in
this role?

Speaker 2 (01:50):
yeah, so I started my career as a middle school
science and social studiesteachers in Walkertown, north
Carolina, in outside of Winston,did that for a while and then
transitioned to elementaryschool and worked at Cook
Literacy Model School when theywere going through a restart to
really promote science and STEMfor elementary kids and get them

(02:10):
excited about science.
And then I spent the last fewyears at Petrie Elementary in
Winston building a science andSTEM program and about a year
and a half ago this jobopportunity at Guilford came
open as the K-8 science and STEMcoordinator and I was like this
is a great chance for me to nowtake what I've been doing at
the school level, but also tonow expand to the district level

(02:33):
and get other teachers andother principals and curriculum
facilitators excited andpassionate about science in
their schools.

Speaker 1 (02:40):
Do you have a special moment you can share with the
audience about some time whereyou felt like the light bulb
clicked, whether that was withstudents or with faculty?
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(03:01):
instance.
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Give us a call 888-264-5877, orfind us on the web, abck12.com,
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Hope to hear from you soon.
Bye-bye.

Speaker 2 (03:23):
Yeah, there's a lot of light bulb moments, but I
think one of the biggest ones iswhen I've sat in professional
learning communities withteachers especially teachers who
are a little bit reluctant atfirst about teaching science and
just the oh I don't have timereading and math kind of take
over.
Nothing against reading and math, but just really like working

(03:45):
with a group of teachers andseeing as we go through the
standards and we talk about howthe science and engineering
practices also support ELA andmath and how their science
standards is how you get kidsexcited.
Kids love science.
So if you get them excitedabout science, this is a great
way to also incorporate ELA andmath into it.
And just watching teachers gofrom that reluctant like oh, I

(04:08):
don't think I can do this, to ohmy gosh, I can't wait till
tomorrow to incorporate thisinto my classroom and just
really take off with it.
And that's where I've seen thebiggest results is.
Once my teachers buy in andthey see how important teaching
science is, then you see ithappen in their classroom and
you see the passion, you see theengagement just really take off
and that's where our scoresgrow.

Speaker 1 (04:28):
That is awesome.
That's awesome and I understandyou've used American Book
Company books in the past.

Speaker 2 (04:33):
Yes.
So when I was still a classroomteacher, I used American Book
Company to supplement my scienceinstruction because it was
always a great tool for ourstudents to just get some good
informational text, also somequestioning stems, to really
kind of build on what I wasdoing through the hands-on
pieces in the classroom and then, as I've moved into, like you

(04:54):
know, science coach, stem coachrole at school levels and then
now at the district level.
It's definitely a book that I'mstill promoting because I know
how greatly allotted it is toour new North Carolina science
standards.
And it's also really pushingthat science and engineering
practice piece.

Speaker 1 (05:11):
Oh, fantastic, that's great.
That applied science is allpart of that.
New NGSS standards Right,absolutely, as well as the North
Carolina standards.
That's wonderful.
Brad, do you have anythingyou'd like to share with NCMLE
that you'd like as a takeawayfrom this conference?

Speaker 2 (05:26):
Other than this is a great conference.
It's a great networkingopportunity.
I mean, even though I live inthe science world, it's just
great to connect with otherdisciplines and other people at
different leadership areas andreally just see how we all
collaborate and network togetherto do what's best for our
teachers and students.

Speaker 1 (05:41):
That's wonderful, Brad.
Well, thank you so much.
This is Brad Rue.
He is with Guilford County.
He is the curriculumcoordinator for science and STEM
.
Thank you so much for joiningus today, no problem, thank you.