Dr. Drizzle stirs up students at St. Bernadette's in Northbrough

By Tanya Connor | The Catholic Free Press

NORTHBOROUGH – “Yes! Yes! You moved!”
The student was excited that his new creation – an air-powered vehicle made of cardboard, wheels, straws and a deflating balloon – actually worked.
Fourth-graders at St. Bernadette Elementary School had been given the materials and minimal instructions for making the vehicles, and many found it a challenge to design them so they would roll for a distance, if at all. But the students kept at it, enthralled with the assignment.
Their instructor, Dacia Jones, was looking for all of that: education to help people pursue with perseverance what they have a passion for.
She told the fourth-graders about the money that can be made designing and building real cars.
“Not everybody goes to college … and that’s OK,” she said, challenging the students to think about what makes them feel good about themselves, and what would help them make a difference in the world.
Her work with the fourth grade was part of a day of instruction called High Adventure STEM that also included a hands-on engineering class for grade seven, a school-wide assembly and a professional development session for teachers. (STEM stands for science, technology, engineering and math.)
Dacia Jones is known as Dr. Drizzle. She is “an internationally recognized educator who travels the country inspiring teachers and administrators alike to integrate STEM into everyday instruction,” said information from the school. “St. Bernadette’s is committed to enhancing its students’ STEM curriculum by exposing them to experiences” such as this.
Dr. Drizzle’s Feb. 12 presentation was free for St. Bernadette’s, thanks to her friendship with one of the teachers and funding from the Beyond 7/2 Foundation.
Beyond 7/2, a non-profit established by explorer Colin O’Brady and his wife, Jenna, aims to inspire young people to live active, healthy lives and pursue their biggest dreams, says the website www.colinobrady.com.
During the all-school assembly Dr. Drizzle showed video clips of the O’Bradys, and talked about some of the world records Mr. O’Brady broke, including climbing the tallest mountain on each continent. She said the 7 in Beyond 7/2 stands for the seven mountains and the 2 for the North and South Pole, to which he also journeyed.
Dr. Drizzle and Mary Anne Jezierski, middle school coordinator and social studies teacher at St. Bernadette’s, said they and other educators from the United States and Canada met at a teachers’ conference in 2013 and have remained friends.
Ms. Jezierski said Dr. Drizzle offered her presentation, funded by Beyond 7/2, to the institutions that each of those six friends are connected with.
Dr. Drizzle said all seven of them are Christians, and they text each other every day.
She said traveling with her husband, Steve, as a team is a ministry. (He took pictures of the presentation at St. Bernadette’s.) They are co-owners of their company: “Engage! Inspire! Expect! Inform! She said she used the “eieiOh” from the song, “Old McDonald had a Farm,” to form the company’s name. The “Oh” stands for the excited response she expects from those who watch her presentations.
In the school-wide assembly at St. Bernadette’s, Dr. Drizzle used some of Mr. O’Brady’s adventures as a jumping off point for stressing the importance of education for pursuing one’s passion.
Noting that explorers must understand weather, Dr. Drizzle, with help from audience members, showed how dry ice goes from a solid to a gas, and how a hair dryer’s “jet stream” can keep a ping pong ball aloft.
“You too can be a scientist or an engineer,” she told students. “You need to know how our world works.”
But it’s not just science they need to master. Dr. Drizzle said NASA is seeking to hire astronauts, and wants people who can get along with others, communicate and be critical thinkers.
She had student helpers make “rockets” during the assembly, jokingly asking if they had insurance before instructing them to pour water into film canisters, drop in Alka-Seltzer tablets, cap the canisters, turn away and “pray.” Finding no way to bubble out, the mixture burst the caps off, sending the canisters flying.
“All of those experiments worked the first time,” but that doesn’t always happen, Dr. Drizzle told listeners after demonstrating various principles of science. “Fail” can stand for “first attempt in learning,” she said, adding that some people failed numerous times before making products that are now in use.
Being able to organize, plan and be patient, and be kind to others is also important for explorers like Colin O’Brady, Dr. Drizzle said. She showed videos of him setting up his tent quickly when crossing Antarctica and joining others in the first completely human-powered ocean row across Drake Passage – from the southern tip of South America to Antarctica.
“So, what’s your impossible?” Dr. Drizzle asked listeners, continuing the theme of pushing oneself to achieve goals, like Mr. O’Brady does. “What is something you wanted to try” – or are currently doing – that seems impossible? She listed possible answers, including a test at school and growth in the faith. (She said she was happy to be at a school that shares the values she and her husband have.) Nothing is impossible, she said.
“Nothing is impossible with God,” added Father Ronald G. Falco, pastor of St. Bernadette Parish, thanking Dr. Drizzle for her presentation and her statement of faith.
“My father was a Quaker minister,” Dr. Drizzle told The Catholic Free Press, adding that he said, “If we know whose we are, we can change the world.”
She said her mother, who died just before retiring after 30 years of teaching, had a favorite Bible verse, Phil. 4:13: “I have the strength for everything through him who empowers me.”

See photo album of the day.