Meet Rachna!
Rachna Nath is a honey bee scientist, innovator and entrepreneur that works as an educator for the Chandler Public School District and brings a unique and fresh perspective to teaching high school.
Her creativity and spirit to give the best to her students have raised the Arizona College Prep High School students to a place where they innovate every year and apply for patents like renowned innovators. As of today, they have applied for six provisional and two patent pending’s through Rachna’s program which she calls DRIPBL (Dream Research Innovate Problem/Project Based Learning).
These innovations start with a potential grant opportunity from MIT, NOAA, HUE, SBIR, etc. She then identifies a group of students that are passionate about the topic of the grant proposal and ends up researching on the topic. This includes patent searches and then the students work on an innovative solution that can be potentially patented.
She also works with the City of Chandler Incubator to have the students trained in establishing companies and helps kids establish their companies as early as 9th graders. Rachna’s innovative program has led to not just getting funding for more than 100K to the ACPHS students but also development of prototypes that provide innovative solutions in many different fields.
The ‘Sensehydro’, a wristband to detect heat stress in elderly, hikers, and student athletes by measuring vitals is in the beta prototype stage and patent pending. The ‘Smart Scents’ are VOC free scent bags that is an air freshener that doesn’t trigger breathing issues, the ‘Ecoclamp’ is a device to help identify recyclable from non-recyclable items to be used in the school cafeteria, the ‘Garden Guard’ protects plants in Arizona from extreme heat and cold, Styrofoam recycling using mealworms and Tenebrio beetles and many others.
Her students have won various grants using this innovative program from research grants from The Society for Science and the Public, HUE, Lemelson MIT Excite award, Limitless Space Institute, Intel and many more. Her networking has also brought in collaborations for her students from NASA, National Geographic, Limitless Space Institute, ASU, UA, Caltech and many others. The students have won science awards at the International Science and Engineering Fair, science competitions across state, innovation awards from MIT, Climate champion awards from Maricopa County and many others.
Overall, Rachna’s innovative and creative ways to teach research and her dedication and commitment to support her students has brought a unique perspective to ACPHS students and the success that you see in her students is the testament of her hard work. She herself has won many awards for her innovative teaching including Global Innovation Award , Presidential Award for Environmental Educators (Honorable Mention), Teacher of the Year by Junior Science and Humanities Symposium, Governor’s Celebration of Innovation Award to mention a few, Innovation Award by City of Chandler, Teacher of the Year by Chandler State of the City and many others.
Through Hardships to the Stars
Her journey to becoming the leader she is today started back home in India. Born amongst the vibrant culture and tradition of North East India, she never experienced gender disparity. However, it was not the same when it came to picking professions. Back then, if you were not a doctor or an engineer, you were classified as “an average” student.
When she chose to study bachelors in science, she was tagged average, but she was determined to prove that she had the potential to make a difference. After her bachelor’s, she worked hard for her masters, but it was not enough to get her a job in the United States in 2003. So, “she reduced her qualifications and still could not find a job”.
Finally, after five months of volunteering, she got a job as a cleaner and cashier at a local hospital. She was happy that she got into the workforce.
However, It was not until late 2004 that she got an adjunct faculty position at a community college that she was able to get back to her academics. Thirteen years later, in 2014, she got back to a PhD Program only to be disappointed once more, but she persevered and obtained her second masters in Honey bee research.
She was at a very low point in her life when something unexpected happened: She was invited to become a high school teacher. After a year of being a high school teacher, she came across another turning point in her life. She received an email from Lemelson-MIT for a $10K grant application.
Since then, her students and Rachna have applied for numerous grants along with filing 4 patents and establishing companies as early as 8th grade through her program called DRIPBL™ (Dream Research Innovate Problem/Project Based Learning™).
Through her struggles, she has become a bridge for high school student success in the STEM and Innovation field: a dream that she had when she was growing up. She has become the person she was looking for 30 years back!!
“Sometimes, our adversities in life lead us to discover our strengths”
In 2019, she became an Award-winning Innovator and educator. Her creativity and spirit to give the best to her students have raised the Arizona College Prep High School students to a place where they innovate every year and apply for patents like renowned innovators. As of today, they have applied for six provisional and two patent pending’s through Rachna’s program which she calls DRIPBL™ (Dream Research Innovate Problem/Project Based Learning™).
These innovations start with a potential grant opportunity from MIT, NOAA, HUE, SBIR, etc. She then identifies a group of students that are passionate about the topic of the grant proposal and ends up researching on the topic. This includes patent searches and then the students work on an innovative solution that can be potentially patented.
