Maples teacher wins national education award

The Maples

North End

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This article was published 26/06/2024 (768 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

When it comes to Andrea Misner’s passion for teaching science, it could be described as sky high.

Misner — who teaches physics and astronomy to grades 9 to 12 at Maples Collegiate — is among the latest recipients of the Prime Minister’s Award, which is recognizes outstanding educators across the nation who are inspiring the next generation to be bold innovators and creators, officials say.

The North End resident has been awarded the national certificate of excellence for teaching excellence. She was nominated by another member of the science team at the school, Kashmere Huynh.

“It feels amazing,” said Misner, who was speaking from Ottawa on a trip to receive the award and acknowledged that the honour is very much a shared one. “It feels like I’ve won the Nobel Prize, which is not won in isolation. I’ve worked with many great teams through the years.”

Such teams include the science team at Maples Collegiate, the 7Oaks STEAMFest team, and the Manitoba Association of Physics Teachers (MAPT).

Misner, who has been teaching at Maples Collegiate for 14 years, believes in creating experiential learning and hands-on passion projects, which are often undertaken in collaboration with different partners.

Opportunities have included scuba diving, launching high-altitude balloons, and using research-grade telescopes.

“It’s important that the students are engaged and excited, and I enjoy taking the learning outside the classroom,” Misner said, adding this includes vertical whiteboards teaching methods. “I do this to show the kids how science gets done, and I want them to see the process. Science can be messy, and learning by trial and error is an important part of it.”

Misner said a key part of the process is to create authentic experiences “outside of the textbook” that might be different to traditional science lab experiences of the past.

This year’s 7Oaks STEAMFest event was held at Maples Collegiate last month, and Misner is proud of the role the students played. STEAM stands for science-technology-engineering-arts-mathematics.

“I was really proud we gave science a stage in our division,” she said. “Over the last three years, we’ve built the festival up, and it’s been an amazing adventure.”

Misner also has some sound advice for new or would-be teachers: “I tell teachers to dive in, find your team, and make the classroom student-centred and learn alongside the students.”

Other Winnipeg winners in this round of Prime Minister’s Awards are Andrew S. Hiebert of Mennonite Brethren Collegiate Institute and George Pearce from Gordon Bell High School.