Diana Matthews
Detroit Country Day School-Lower School science teacher Diana Matthews recently received the Presidential Award for Excellence in Math and Science Teaching (PAEMST), and is among the 300 K-12 educators nationwide to be honored at the White House awards ceremony later this year.
Established in 1983, the PAEMST includes a $10,000 stipend and is the highest honor that K-12 math and science teachers can earn from the U.S. government.
“I am honored and humbled to be named a Presidential Award winner, given the remarkable field of excellent teachers PAEMST celebrates,” said the elementary school educator. ”They are all exceptionally passionate and creative teachers who deliver dynamic and innovative lessons to their students across the nation.”
Being a self-described lifelong learner, Matthews hopes to instill a sense of awe and wonder in her students as they explore the world around them, often taking them on field trips to learn from nature. Her science classroom is home to a menagerie, including a puffer fish, fire-bellied toad, gecko, hermit crab, Madagascar hissing cockroaches, two turtles and a tortoise. Hands-on learning is by far the best way to engage students and give them a zest for science she said. “At any given time you’ll find the tortoise or the cockroaches – that are escape artists – walking around the classroom, and the students love it.”
Matthews, who earned a B.A. in education from Purdue University and a M.Ed. from Wayne State University, is adamant about integrating STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, and math) into her lessons, and allowing children to create, tinker and explore while learning concepts and science-based phenomena.
“The key is by combining all of these things I see students light up with an excitement that is so fundamental to engagement and learning,” she said.
Matthews is a consultant for the Michigan Science Teachers Association regarding creative hubs called maker spaces, like those at Detroit Country Day School, that provide tools and hands-on techniques for students to design and bring their ideas to life. “These innovative work stations are so important in the scheme of things because this is how young people gain confidence to invent and develop critical thinking and solutions to problems,” Matthews said. “And they learn something that will help them achieve success in their future fields – how to handle failure and to keep trying until you find an answer.”
Garnering praise for creativity and ingenuity, the adventuresome educator recalls one special science project she thinks of as her legacy to date. Inspired by environmental artist David M. Bird, her class constructed “Acorn People” – charming, tiny “people” out of acorns, twigs, seeds, flowers and more, and then took photographs of them and developed an app to digitally animate them in nature settings.
“'Acorn People’ was a fun, hands-on project helping my students connect nature and technology, something important in our ever-growing high tech digital world,” she said.”Many students said they didn’t realize that learning could be so much fun, and that is my ultimate goal.”
Matthews revealed what keeps her motivated, teaching science year after year. ”I want to help in the development of deep thinkers with a zest for life-long learning who will go on to become future leaders – including under-represented females in both math and science. It’s my hope that my students become future stewards of nature and their world, working to make it a better place.”
Free time for the busy teacher and her husband often involves travel, including Portugal, a favorite destination for them.
“And we love to get dinner and a movie in downtown Birmingham – mostly a comedy – I believe it’s important to have fun both in and outside of the classroom!”
Story: Susan Peck
Photo: Theodore Michael
