By Colleen Flanagan, Maple Ridge – Pitt Meadows News
A Pitt Meadows secondary physics, science and math teacher has been awarded a Prime Minister’s Award for teaching excellence in STEM.
Kelvin Dueck teaches Grades 9 through 12 and said, in a media release, that he will do almost anything to get his students engaged.
He even jumped out of a plane to teach his students a physics lesson about free fall, an event that came about after he won a silent auction bid at a grad fundraiser.
Dueck has also been known to make physics fun and relevant with demonstrations during which students rip a phone book in half, pilot a toy hovercraft or try out a bed of nails to prompt a discussion about force, area and pressure.
“I love this job. I’d do it for free,” Dueck said in an interview.
For him, teaching is about seeing the light go off behind a student’s eyes.
“I can never get enough of that. I can live off that for ages.”
He added that the universe is “cool,” and all he ever has to do is step aside to let his students learn.