DiscoverE Educator Awards Highlight Efforts of Three STEM Teachers

DiscoverE Educator Awards Highlight Efforts of Three STEM Teachers DiscoverE Educator Awards Highlight Efforts of Three STEM Teachers DiscoverE Educator Awards Highlight Efforts of Three STEM Teachers (Left to right) Daisy Rayela, Leon R. Grant III and Jill Johnson were recognized as the winners of the 2015 DiscoverE Educator Awards at a ceremony on June 8 at the National Academy of Sciences Building in Washington, D.C. Earlier this month, DiscoverE honored three pre-college teachers for their efforts to introduce young people to engineering. The three teachers Leon R. Grant III, Jill Johnson and Daisy Rayela were named as the winners of the 2015 DiscoverE Educator Awards. Eight other teachers were named runners-up in this year’s program. Eighty-five teachers were nominated this year for the DiscoverE Educator Awards program, which provides engineers with the opportunity to show their appreciation for the pre-college STEM educators who are encouraging young people to discover engineering. The three winners were recognized June 8 at a ceremony at the National Academy of Sciences Building in Washington, D.C. The winners each received a $2,000 cash prize and a gift pack of classroom supplies from 3M, while the eight runners-up each received $500 each and 3M gift packs. One of this year's three top winners, Leon Grant, is the founder of the Bridge-Gap STEM Mentoring Program and Society for Pre-Engineering at Marietta High School in Marietta, Ga. Grant has spearheaded a three-year project in which his students work with engineering students and professionals to research, engineer, design, and construct sustainable buildings for communities in Haiti, using repurposed shipping containers. Leon has inspired many of his students to continue on to study engineering in college and become successful engineering professionals. DiscoverE Educator Award-winner Jill Johnson started her career as an electrical engineer working as a research and development controls specialist. Feeling that women and minorities were underrepresented in the engineering field, however, she changed her career path. As a teacher at Johnson Aerospace and Engineering High School in St. Paul, Minn., Johnson provides new STEM learning opportunities to underserved students in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area. She also established a STEM camp for middle school students and teaches a course, Bridging Engineering and Education, which trains educators how to introduce K-12 students to engineering. This years third winner, Daisy Rayela, believes that learning shouldnt be limited to the classroom. Before becoming the current STEM coordinator at Thomas Johnson Middle School in Lanham, Md., Rayela taught at Jose Panganiban National High School, where her science club was active in environmentally focused outreach programs within the community. Rayela started the Gateway to Technology program at her school to offer students problem solving, hands-on STEM based activities related to design and modeling, automation and robotics, energy and the environment. The eight runners-up in this years program are Ramatu Gariba of the South Municipal Education Directorate in Accra, Ghana; Rebekah Hammack of Stillwater Middle School in Stillwater, Okla.; Cary James of Bangor High School in Bangor, Maine; Richard Johnson of Rostrata Primary School in Whilletton, Australia; Katie Marchionna of Highland High School in Palmdale, Calif.; Aaron Tostado of Da Vinci Science High School in Hawthorne, Calif.; Jaime Trevino of the Foy H. Moody High School Innovation Academy from Corpus Christi, Texas; and Kate Youmans of the American International School of Utah in Salt Lake City. The DiscoverE Educator Awards are sponsored by 3M, Bechtel, ExxonMobil Corp., Lockheed Martin Corp., Shell Oil Corp., and the United Engineering Foundation (UEF). For more information on the awards program and this years winners and runners-up, visit http://bit.ly/1G7DDNI.