May 7, 2025
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 hi...
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.
Spotlight 4 Success Website:
Spotlight 4 Success
00:00 - Meeting Brad Rue at NCMLE
01:42 - Brad's Career Journey in Education
03:23 - Lightbulb Moments with Teachers
05:07 - Using ABC Books for Science Education
05:26 - Closing Thoughts on Collaboration
WEBVTT
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Welcome to Spotlight for Success by American Book Company.
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We are here in Charlotte at the North Carolina Mid-Level Educators Conference.
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I am Devin Pintosi, your host.
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We are here with Brad Rue.
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Brad Rue is the Science and STEM Coordinator with Guilford County Schools.
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That's correct.
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Welcome, Brad.
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Thank you for having me.
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Yes, brad, tell us a bit about what brings you today to NCMLE.
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So I'm here kind of two-folded One as the Science and STEM Coordinator in Guilford County.
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This is a great way for me to connect with other science leaders across our state as well as see what are some new things that are coming out, especially with our new science standards, to see how other districts are promoting the standards and what resources and materials they're using to really get their teachers and students involved with the science and engineering practices, but also as the president-elect for the North Carolina Science Teachers Association.
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We are also here promoting our association and really hoping to get more science teachers to come to our conference and be a bigger part of our science network that we have across the state.
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And when is that conference coming up?
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The conference is November 6th and 7th in Winston-Salem.
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Okay, november 6th and 7th in Winston-Salem, wonderful, and that's for all the science teachers.
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All the science teachers, kindergarten through college level, because we have sessions for elementary science, middle, high school and also for pre-service teachers on how to be a phenomenal science teacher when they enter the classroom.
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Oh, that's fantastic, and tell us a little bit about your career journey.
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You're now now a curriculum coordinator at district.
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What did you do previous to that and how did you end up in this role?
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yeah, so I started my career as a middle school science and social studies teachers in Walkertown, north Carolina, in outside of Winston, did that for a while and then transitioned to elementary school and worked at Cook Literacy Model School when they were going through a restart to really promote science and STEM for elementary kids and get them excited about science.
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And then I spent the last few years at Petrie Elementary in Winston building a science and STEM program and about a year and a half ago this job opportunity at Guilford came open as the K-8 science and STEM coordinator and I was like this is a great chance for me to now take what I've been doing at the school level, but also to now expand to the district level and get other teachers and other principals and curriculum facilitators excited and passionate about science in their schools.
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Do you have a special moment you can share with the audience about some time where you felt like the light bulb clicked, whether that was with students or with faculty?
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At American Book Company in Woodstock, georgia, we are committed to your students' success.
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As you can see behind me, we have our workbooks and we have online testing and e-books that go on fancy iPads over here, for instance.
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They're all designed to help your students succeed and have higher test scores on their high stakes assessments.
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Give us a call 888-264-5877, or find us on the web, abck12.com, and you can receive a free trial or a free preview book of your choice.
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Hope to hear from you soon.
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Bye-bye.
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Yeah, there's a lot of light bulb moments, but I think one of the biggest ones is when I've sat in professional learning communities with teachers especially teachers who are a little bit reluctant at first about teaching science and just the oh I don't have time reading and math kind of take over.
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Nothing against reading and math, but just really like working with a group of teachers and seeing as we go through the standards and we talk about how the science and engineering practices also support ELA and math and how their science standards is how you get kids excited.
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Kids love science.
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So if you get them excited about science, this is a great way to also incorporate ELA and math into it.
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And just watching teachers go from that reluctant like oh, I don't think I can do this, to oh my gosh, I can't wait till tomorrow to incorporate this into my classroom and just really take off with it.
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And that's where I've seen the biggest results is.
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Once my teachers buy in and they see how important teaching science is, then you see it happen in their classroom and you see the passion, you see the engagement just really take off and that's where our scores grow.
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That is awesome.
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That's awesome and I understand you've used American Book Company books in the past.
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Yes.
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So when I was still a classroom teacher, I used American Book Company to supplement my science instruction because it was always a great tool for our students to just get some good informational text, also some questioning stems, to really kind of build on what I was doing through the hands-on pieces in the classroom and then, as I've moved into, like you know, science coach, stem coach role at school levels and then now at the district level.
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It's definitely a book that I'm still promoting because I know how greatly allotted it is to our new North Carolina science standards.
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And it's also really pushing that science and engineering practice piece.
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Oh, fantastic, that's great.
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That applied science is all part of that.
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New NGSS standards Right, absolutely, as well as the North Carolina standards.
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That's wonderful.
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Brad, do you have anything you'd like to share with NCMLE that you'd like as a takeaway from this conference?
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Other than this is a great conference.
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It's a great networking opportunity.
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I mean, even though I live in the science world, it's just great to connect with other disciplines and other people at different leadership areas and really just see how we all collaborate and network together to do what's best for our teachers and students.
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That's wonderful, Brad.
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Well, thank you so much.
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This is Brad Rue.
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He is with Guilford County.
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He is the curriculum coordinator for science and STEM.
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Thank you so much for joining us today, no problem, thank you.
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