An Over Coffee® special-edition episode

Howard Robinson’s photograph by Treion Films, event videographer, courtesy of Howard Robinson, and used with permission.

Leadership, imagination, and passion for discovery, are qualities of top educators.

They’re also the factors that are currently evolving education into a 21st-century model to better serve all students.

Numerous education experts point to the ways interactive curricula–where students collaborate and contribute while solving problems–tend to best prepare them for the workplace of the future. That includes jobs that don’t even exist yet!

In this edition of Over Coffee®, we highlight three exceptional educators.

Howard Robinson, Deidre Cavazzi and Steve Jones are using their creativity, at the intersection of art and science, to get students excited about learning. Each of these professionals is relating the classroom to today’s–and tomorrow’s–world.

VR for the future

S.T.E.M. Education Consultant Howard Robinson is the founder of We Are VR Leaders which teaches youth through immersive scenarios. Art therapy, leadership training and a mentorship program are among the curricula he’s offering to local schools.

Howard first realized the power of virtual reality to overcome limitations while teaching computer skills to students in South Africa. Today, he’s looking forward to bringing his training program to “every community center and every club in the nation”. His aspirations for program expansion include future adult education, in addition to the youth programs which We Are VR Leaders currently offers.

Dance investigates science

(Royalty-free image by Rudy and Peter Skitterians from Pixabay.)

Saddleback College Dance Department Chair Deidre Cavazzi finds inspiration for her art in science–and vice versa. A marine scientist, Deidre involves multiple Saddleback departments (including math and psychology) in her dance productions. Students from all disciplines are welcome to participate.

And just recently, Deidre created a new dance program, “Conduit: Exploring Neuroscience Through Dance Theatre”. Developed in collaboration with a neuroscientist and several psychology professors, “Conduit” includes short talks on the brain, along with the dance performance. Deidre and her collaborators have been invited to present “Conduit” at Stanford University on Friday, March 3rd–and you’re invited to this free program!

Exploring space–from the classroom

(Royalty-free image by Arek Socha from Pixabay.)

Steve Jones, who teaches science at Innovation Academy in Alpharetta, Georgia, is “the Space Teacher”. A member of both NASA-JPL’s Ambassador program and of STEM-education organization Magnitude.io, Steve takes an engineer’s approach to teaching science by having his students experiment and discover the solutions to problems.

In 2021, Steve and his students received an exciting honor. After researching crops that could grow well in space, their red-clover crop was selected to travel to the International Space Station about Magnitude.io’s “Exolab-8” experiment! Currently, they’re researching crops for Exolab-10, which is scheduled to launch to the ISS in November.

Howard, Deidre and Steve shared insights on their creative journeys and their perspectives on making education both relevant and exciting for tomorrow’s leaders.