Transcription – Sylvain Gauvreau, Prime Minister's Award recipient
[Black screen fades up to a white background, with the following words appearing, line by line: Prime Minister's Awards. Music playing. Transition to a white and grey screen with medium shot of man, smiling, on the left side of the screen, with the following words appearing, line by line, on the right and voice over: Sylvain Gauvreau, Collège Régina Assumpta, Montréal, Québec.]
[Fade to black and then to photos, with voice over. Photos: Sylvain smiling sitting in his computer lab; four students holding a lego model; Sylvain and a student sitting in an electronics lab; three students working on a robot; three students at a robotics competition; students and Sylvain wearing safety glasses with astronaut, David Saint-Jacques; three students wearing safety glasses with Governor General, and former astronaut, Julie Payette; four students posing in front of a robot; Sylvain and four students doing a science experiment.]
Putting his students' interests at the centre of his educational approach is Sylvain Gauvreau's avowed mission. Concerned about the low graduation rates of high school students, he decided to promote STEM and use cutting edge technologies as a means of providing his students with more vision, motivation and energy. Always ready to go above and beyond the call of duty, he created a robotics-oriented program, established a technology awareness program for girls in primary school, and worked with his students to create a robotics learning platform that has been shared around the world.
[Fade to black and then up white and grey screen with medium shot of man, smiling, on the left side of the screen, with the following words appearing, line by line, on the right: Sylvain Gauvreau, Collège Régina Assumpta, Montréal, Québec. Voice over: Sylvain Gauvreau.]
Year: 2019 – Province: Quebec
Certificate of Excellence Recipient
Grades 7 and 8 (science and robotics)
Collège Regina Assumpta, Montréal, Québec
"Thanks to him, the students in the college's Science and Robotics concentration discovered trades and professions in the classroom and above all, found meaning for their studies by focussing on future plans." — A colleague
Concerned about the low graduation rates, Sylvain Gauvreau made it his mission to find ways to tie his teaching to what youth are actually interested in and 21st century skills to enable them to create a tangible link between what they were learning and their future.
Teaching approach
Sylvain's teaching style is focussed on practice and experimentation, promoting ICTs and using the cutting-edge technologies forming a vision that motivates and energizes the students.
In the classroom
- Sylvain has created a robotics concentration that offers participating students 50 additional hours of instruction in science, technology and robotics.
- He organizes observation evenings on the college's grounds and at the Mont-Mégantic Observatory to introduce his students to astronomy and astrophysics.
- He set up the program Tech for Kids: La technologie au service des jeunes and registered his team in the FIRST robotics competition so that the students receive additional instruction ranging from technology to marketing.
- He organizes visits to robotics-related factories and facilities so that his students see first-hand the present and future use of what they're learning.
Outstanding achievements
- Sylvain implemented an awareness program and activities aimed at interesting elementary school girls in engineering —Les filles et les sciences, toute une alliance! — which increased the number of girls enrolled in the robotics concentration.
- Since the start of his robotics program, 95% of his students continued science studies, 100% attended university and they have been awarded over $100,000 in various scholarships.
- Along with 10 of his students, he participated in an environmental engineering program that used robotics to help the youth in Jalousie, Haiti. This project earned them the Projet engagé de Forces AVENIR prize.
- With his students, he created the learning platform Tech Academy, which brings together robotics publications and tutorials shared around the world.
Transcription – Sylvain Gauvreau - 2019 Prime Minister's Award for Teaching Excellence
[Black screen fades up to close-up of man in interview setting against a white background. Music playing.]
"Technology must first be well applied. I think technology is the future. The future, well, it's the students who are currently sitting in our classrooms."
[Fade to black and then up to white with medium shot of man, smiling, on the right side of the screen, with the following words appearing, line by line, on the left: Sylvain Gauvreau, Collège Régina Assumpta, Montréal (Québec). Fade to black and then up to close-up of Sylvain in the interview setting.]
"Young people really love it when teachers step away from the regular curriculum, when they go outside their program and provide enriching opportunities and, most of all, stimulating activities—during lunch hours or after class or on weekends. So traditional teaching, I think it's still ... it's good, but to do more, to do better, to use technology, I think that's what makes young people very, very, very happy."
[Fade to black and then back to Sylvain in the interview setting.]
"I am really proud of the Tech for Kids program—technology in the service of young people."
[Cut to photos, voice over. Photos: Sylvain and a student sitting in an electronics lab; three students wearing safety glasses with Governor General, and former astronaut, Julie Payette; Sylvain and four students doing a science experiment; students demonstrating robotics to younger students.]
"It is a program that is based on mentoring—with industry professionals, with companies. We also work a lot with the community..."
[Back to Sylvain in the interview setting.]
"…I would say it is also a program that motivates and energizes young people."
[Fade to black and then to photos with voice over. Photos: Sylvain speaking behind a podium during his presentation to fellow recipients on his best practices; Sylvain with other recipients; Sylvain listening to another recipient; Sylvain with his family and a Mountie in dress uniform on Parliament Hill; Sylvain with Paul Thompson, Associate Deputy Minister, Innovation, Science and Economic Development, having received his Prime Minister's Awards pin.]
"I had the chance to meet great people this week, to take part in an exceptional adventure— extraordinary. It really is, I believe, the experience in my career that will have the greatest effect in my life. I really want to share this week with teachers, with teachers at school, and especially with ..."
[Back to Sylvain in the interview setting.]
"… the youngest teachers, and then train them, so one day they can sit in the place I'm in now.
[Fade to black and then up to Sylvain in the interview setting.]
"I thank my former students for following along with me on my craziest projects."
[Fade to black and then up to Sylvain in the interview setting.]
"I was able to get them to develop a level of skill, manual skills, for example by building boats and then sailing them in the school swimming pool. Also building robots until 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning, seven days a week. They have always been with me. They have always accompanied me. They have always supported me in the most difficult moments. Then, for my new students, what I want is to give them all the energy that I have now, that I have accumulated this week, and to take them even further. That's really my goal, and to share with them this week, which has been extraordinary for me."
[Fade to black, with the Government of Canada FIP and then the Canada Wordmark appearing in white.]
Get in touch!
Collège Regina Assumpta
1750, rue Sauriol Est
Montréal, QC H2C 1X4
514-382-4121
info@reginaassumpta.qc.ca
https://www.reginaassumpta.qc.ca/
Twitter: @reginaassumpta