Her Story
Donna Gradel says she believes teaching is both a science and an art. She credits her own teachers for her path: Mr. Pizzuti, a boys’ basketball coach who risked his career so that she could play, which led to an All-State high school career and one of the first women’s basketball scholarships at West Virginia University, and Mrs. Richardson, a biology teacher who stayed after school until basketball practice ended so Gradel could join her exploration sessions. She earned a bachelor’s degree in physical education and biological sciences and a master’s degree in early childhood motor development at West Virginia University.
She began teaching in West Virginia, where there were no science openings and an emergency certificate put her in front of special education students in an old trailer. That is where she says her philosophy took shape: every student can learn regardless of starting point, and students need to be encouraged and loved but also challenged. She later taught at Nathan Hale High School in Tulsa and has taught at Broken Arrow High School since 1996, where she is the science department chair.
She describes her room as a beehive, full of purposeful activity. Aquariums hold student projects on coral propagation and native fish restoration, a student-built black soldier fly harvester tests low-cost sustainable feed, and students test water, design rain gardens and calculate the buoyancy of plastic bottles. Her classes have worked with city engineers, the Audubon Society, MIT, and research and weather scientists in Kenya, and she teaches AP Environmental Science, an on-level co-taught class and an Honors Innovative Research class that she designed.
Beyond the Classroom
Gradel was the 2018 Oklahoma State Teacher of the Year and a 2019 National Teacher of the Year finalist. She received the EPA Presidential Innovation Award for Environmental Educators in 2017, the Henry Ford Innovation Nation Teacher Award in 2015, the Oklahoma Medal for Excellence in Secondary Teaching in 2014 and the Broken Arrow Community Impact Award in 2017.
About eight years before she wrote her application, she and her students started Aqua for Tharaka, an international project to bring clean water and protein to orphans in Kenya. It brought clean water to a remote medical clinic and elementary school, and students traveled with her to Kenya in 2013 to build an aquaponic system that raises 1,500 tilapia. After learning that the fish food was unaffordable, her students won a Lemelson-MIT InvenTeam grant, invented a low-cost sustainable fish food, and returned in 2016 to build the system and train local orphans to make it. Closer to home, her students’ air-quality research led the school board to approve a district-wide energy policy, and they designed a 2,500-square-foot floating wetland that helped lead to a city park funded with $500,000 of bond proceeds. She has also advised the national board of Fund for Teachers and presents professional development locally, statewide and nationally.
Philosophy Into Practice
Gradel uses the SAT given to all juniors, the state science test and the College Board’s AP data to set goals with her department’s weekly professional learning communities. Her students scored above the state SAT average, and in her 12 years teaching AP Environmental Science they have scored above the national average every year but two, sometimes as much as 30 percent higher. Her Innovative Research students defend their work in a 20-minute presentation followed by questions from a panel of professionals.
She names teacher retention and recruitment as a central issue in education, and has helped by mentoring dozens of new teachers and serving on district and state committees, including the Oklahoma State Teacher Shortage Task Force and the Oklahoma Superintendent’s Advisory Council. She also worries about the opportunity gap for students in high-poverty schools, and has helped organize food, clothing, tutoring and mentoring programs for students who need them.
“I believe teaching is both a science and an art.”Donna Gradel
In Her Own Words
“Every life matters. Every student can learn regardless of their starting point.”Donna Gradel
“Failure is just one step closer to finding a solution.”Donna Gradel
“Students need to be encouraged and loved, but also challenged.”Donna Gradel
What Others Said
“Donna Gradel is the most phenomenal teacher that I have had the privilege of knowing.”Kim Garrett, Ed.D., Director of High School Academics, Broken Arrow High School
“Spend ten minutes with her and you also will want to join her and her students in changing the world.”Kim Garrett, Ed.D., Director of High School Academics, Broken Arrow High School
“Her example and daily excellence simply make it impossible to be complacent or self-satisfied in her presence.”Elizabeth Burns, principal, Broken Arrow High School
“I found her to be a very kind and caring educator with high expectations for all students.”Larry Lewis, Director of High School Administration, Broken Arrow Public Schools
“Ms. Gradel wants the student to learn how to think critically and then implement that skill in all areas of life.”Kenneth D. Schwab, parent