COLLEGE STATION, Texas — Paula Downie was one of 10 teachers in the nation chosen to be a part of the new vernier trendsetters community where she’ll get the chance to learn more stem techniques to pass down to other educators and her own students.
“I definitely wouldn’t have had as high of a grade in this class if I didn’t have Mrs. Downie,” said senior, Lachi Justice.
Throughout her 15 years of teaching, she has made her students confident in their understanding of physics and technology through hands on projects that are accessible to everyone, no matter their academic level.
Downie explained her mentality, “I believe that we shouldn’t just be focused towards the AP student or the advanced student--I wasn’t all my students to love science and sometimes that's hard, and it's hard to get student interested and I’m always looking for new ways to do that.”
Her methods have made her students confident in their learning process.
“Wiring is very difficult, and it can easily get complicate and overwhelming but the lessons and information we’re learning, we got to apply hands on and that’s not very common in most places,” described Justice.
Her students have always seen how special their teacher is and are excited to see her continue to bring stem learning to life in other classrooms.
Lilsy Avila, another one of Downie's students said, “I’m grateful that she’s our teacher that she makes everything fun and interesting that even though I don’t know many people she just lets us be with everyone and interact with them and makes everything just fun.”
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