海角社区

Ensuring Student Success for All

海角社区 alumna Morgan Decuir from Erwinville, Louisiana, is a first-generation college graduate. She leads STEM education for kindergarten through fourth grade at Caneview K-8 in Port Allen in the same community where she attended elementary and middle school. In 2022, she won the Shell Science Lab Regional Challenge, bringing more STEM learning opportunities to her community and to Louisiana students.

鈥淭he Shell Science Lab award has allowed me to purchase supplies to teach the Next Generation Science Standards and provide more hands-on learning opportunities for the five different grade levels that I teach,鈥� Decuir said. 鈥淢y district has invested in many different technology tools, such as Bloxels, Bee-Bots and Indi, which help students develop the critically important computational thinking skills they can build on in middle school, high school and college.鈥�

Decuir was a student at 海角社区 from 2011 to 2015, at which point she graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Elementary Education. She then went back to 海角社区 from 2016 to 2018, graduating with a Master of Education in Curriculum and Instruction. Now, she鈥檚 leveraging the expertise she gained at 海角社区 to engage elementary students in using new technologies, thus broadening the talent pipeline to some of the most high-paying careers from an early age.

鈥淚 teach my students there are different ways to solve a problem,鈥� Decuir said. 鈥淲hen a sequence of code doesn鈥檛 work, I鈥檒l say, 鈥楲et鈥檚 think of a different way.鈥欌��

鈥楩inding a way鈥� defines Decuir. She participated in the 海角社区 Summer Scholars program, a bridge program for minority students, and served as an 海角社区 Ambassador.

鈥淚t set me up for success,鈥� Decuir said. 鈥淏eing an 海角社区 Ambassador really helped me learn how to do things for my school and for my community; how to present and represent.鈥�

鈥淚n my classroom, I have a sign that says, 鈥淭oday is a great day to learn something new!鈥� I enjoy implementing new and innovative technology tools in my classroom that provide students with hands-on opportunities to learn computational thinking skills. I enjoy seeing my students show they鈥檙e learning in different ways while being creative and collaborating together.鈥�

Morgan Decuir, STEM teacher at Caneview K-8 in Port Allen, Louisiana, and 海角社区 College of Human Sciences & Education alumna