Florida
Paul says “the first thing you hear when a student steps into my classroom is a gasp of excitement and a big ‘Whoa! Look at that!’" Then the lights cut off, they hear a ”news report” about an impending hurricane, thunder rolls, and smoke fills the room. As the lights come back on, the students are tasked to fix the problems that happened as a result of the “hurricane.” Paul’s extraordinary STEM classroom is a 45-foot Mobile STEM Lab (a bus), geared towards the 4,000 5th graders in his county’s 28 Title 1 schools. Paul explains, “This low-barrier, high-ceiling, self-directed experience connects students to the future by introducing them to STEM careers they never knew existed.”
Fun fact: Paul once worked as a camera assistant at the Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan.
Follow Paul on Twitter, @TeacherPaulP.