113: Educating Students During a Pandemic with Rachna Nath

COVID-19 leveled the playing field of veteran and neophyte teachers alike. The sudden pivot to remote instruction forced technology adoption at a record pace. But the steep learning curve hasn’t slowed Rachna Nath down. As a STEM and entrepreneurship educator, she’s used to thinking innovatively. In this episode, she describes her unique process for expanding her network beyond the traditional high school ecosystem to offer students a first-class experience backed by collegiate resources.

Special Guest: Rachna Nath – STEM Coordinator & Science Teacher at Arizona College Prep, Erie Campus

Location: Chandler, AZ USA

Air Date: September 6, 2020

Resources

Lemelson-MIT: a STEM-based program facilitated by MIT’s School of Engineering, named after the prolific inventor, Gerald Lemelson, that “…celebrates outstanding inventors and inspires young people to pursue creative lives and careers through invention. To date, the [Lemelson] Foundation has made grants totaling over $200 million in support of its mission.”
Google Classroom: a free web-based software offering educators the ability to efficiently manage and assess student progress, while enhancing connections with students and parents from school, from home, or on the go.
MS Teams: a web and phone-based communication and collaboration app that combines chat, video meetings, file storage, and more.
Kami: an app designed to change the way that teachers and students interact in the classroom by offering the ability to annotate pdfs, worksheets, and more.
Loom: video recording software that can bring your whiteboarding or other demonstrations to life with your virtual team.
Zoom: software that offers audio and video recording of webinars, conference calls, presentations, meetings, and more. Also includes screen sharing for enhanced collaboration
Micro Nanotechnology Special Interest Group (MNTSIG): an organization that, “…fosters collaboration between educators at all levels, industry, and agencies for [the] relentless improvement of the micro and nanotechnology workforce.”

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Credits

Producer & Host: Alicia Butler Pierre
Editor: Olanrewaju Ade
Sponsor: rVidi

Bios

More About Guest, Rachna Nath:
Rachna Nath is an internationally and nationally recognized innovator who is also an entrepreneur, grant writer, STEM enthusiast, and a passionate educator. She has two masters, the first one in Entomology (Insect Science) from Cotton College, India, and the second one in Biology (Developmental Genetics) from Arizona State University working with Honey Bee Exocrine gland ontology. She has won several awards around the world and has also received grants from organizations like the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Human Urban Initiatives, and the Society for Science and the Public.

Rachna works with young entrepreneurs to make their dreams come true by working with community partners and helping patent their ideas. She has a network of trusted IT professionals, lawyers, community helpers who help bring dreams to reality for 9th to 12th-grade students who are invested in critical thinking, problem-solving, and giving back to the community by solving real-world problems. She has 3 patents pending from such students in various prototypes from Anti-VOC scent bags to heat stress monitoring devices. Rachna also does a lot of volunteering work talking about honey bees at various festivals, has contributed her time in mask making during the COVID19 pandemic, and also runs a dance school Sangeeta Nritya Academy in the U.S. which she has dedicated to her Guru Sangita Hazarika in Assam, India.

More About Host, Alicia Butler Pierre:
Alicia Butler Pierre is the Founder & CEO of Equilibria, Inc. – a 15-year-old operations management consulting firm. Her career in operations began over 20 years ago while working in various chemical plants and oil refineries. She invented the Kasennu™ framework for business infrastructure and authored, Behind the Façade: How to Structure Company Operations for Sustainable Success. It is the world’s first published book on business infrastructure for small businesses. Alicia hosts the weekly Business Infrastructure podcast with a global audience across 35+ countries.

More About Sponsor, rVidi:
rVidi is the easy app that lets you communicate via video soundbites in your own time in a public or private group setting. Learn more and download for free at rVidi.com. Currently available for iOS; Android development coming soon!

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