Adam Krug: Science you can toil away at for years and years and really never get the answer that you're looking for. And your reward, if you do find the answer, is probably a more detailed and complicated question.
Mariah Presley: Said like a true educator. That's Adam Krug, a high school chemistry teacher in the Sunflower State of Kansas.
Today. We're stepping in. Side the classroom. So far, we've heard from school board members and district leaders, but what about the school district's most beloved resource? Our teachers? How do they balance teaching curriculum and meeting state and federal learning standards alongside real world preparation and relevance for students?
And what role can industry play in supporting their success in the classroom? Welcome to this Educational Life, a podcast by Trane. I'm Mariah Presley, education and industry programs leader for Trane. And I talk to people every day who are rethinking how we prepare students for the world ahead. And today I'm thrilled to be sharing Adam's story.
Let's dive in. Adam wasn't always a rockstar science teacher after college. He actually spent time working in the industry as a chemist. But after working long hours on the night shift, Adam found himself wondering if this was the right path for him. One night, like it was fate, he saw an ad
Clip: bilingual school in Slovakia hiring a biology and English conversation teacher.
Mariah Presley: Maybe this could be his calling. So in 2006, when AI was still science fiction, tweeting was brand new, and the internet was obsessed. With Chuck Norris memes, Adam took a leap of faith and headed to Slovakia to begin his teaching career, and today he is still teaching as a high school science teacher in Kansas.
Through those years, the world and the classroom changed dramatically. Physical books were swapped for laptops. Whiteboards given away for PowerPoint presentations and AI answers questions way faster than any search engine ever could. The reality is. The tools we use every day are evolving to meet the demands of a modern world, and so are the skills for success of our future generations.
So our teachers who are on the front lines of this transformation are challenged every day to prepare students for a life. And career that didn't exist a decade ago. Which begs the question, how can industry support and simplify the work being done by teachers to provide relevant learning opportunities for kids in a way that redefines what's possible for their futures?
Adam Krug: One day our CTE coordinator just said there was a one day workshop. I think you should sign up for that. And I was like, all right, we'll check it out. Yeah, I think I went to the workshop in November and when we got back, we implemented one of the lessons in December and then started working with the kid Wins stuff, and then the next summer did the data analytics and.
Piece by piece. Trusted the process and, and it's been very rewarding.
Mariah Presley: That workshop was one of train's Train the Trainer programs. Sidenote, try saying that three times fast. These programs led by trains, educators, and residents. Equip teachers with ready to use tools, resources, and industry insight for energy education, empowering them to integrate these lessons directly into their existing programs as hands-on industry relevant learning, think a more scalable externship model for teachers with ongoing industry support and application.
Opportunities like KidWind and trans energy and data analytics programs, what Adam mentioned before, introduce students to high demand transferable skills and certifications that they need to be competitive post-secondary.
Adam Krug: It's like you can make anything into a lesson. That aspect has just been super fun from the get go.
That's, I think, where some people get the most surprised. But these are all freshmen in high school. I mean, there's a few sophomores and juniors and some of those classes, but it's a general science, earth science. That's awesome. And that's been super fun 'cause I get those kids a couple years later in my chemistry class and sometimes they're still involved doing the kid wind.
So I get to see them progress. But you can see 'em grow up pretty fast if you give 'em the opportunity.
Mariah Presley: We've spent a little bit of time too. We, as in train, working with you, learning the district and really I'd say even like the community, the vision around learning and the mission for how students are being equipped for the future.
So can you share a little bit about some of the programs you guys have adopted and maybe like why or how they align with some of the vision and mission of not just your classroom, but also for your district?
Adam Krug: I mean, our district is definitely trying to prepare kids to be out there and be the best productive citizens we can be.
And that doesn't always mean a four year degree, I think when I was in school, that's what you do, right? And if you don't, then it's somehow a failure. And I think our focus on getting people the skills that will match them up with the best situation for them. I don't think I had ever really made a connection between data analytics and hvac.
Mariah Presley: Right.
Adam Krug: But what makes perfect sense? So I think, uh, honestly, they just wanna get in there and do something practical. So the kid wind, like I mentioned before, just being able to actually like collect stuff. And I literally give them three or four days where they just have free reign. They just figure it out and then by the end of it, they don't even realize they've collected a hundred data points and.
What industry can really provide is the relevance piece. Like this is the world you're growing into and these are the opportunities, these are the places that are gonna sign your paycheck at some point. Yeah. But yeah, I think within the community, we're fairly rural. We draw from several communities in the area, so there's a lot of agriculture there.
And that piece is one where. People don't think about that all the time as a big amount of debt, but it's everywhere. It really is. And I think once they see that, they're like, oh, all that's being generated from my combine and my tractor. And I do show 'em as part of the analytics lessons where they were diagnosing problems with the tractor while some guy in an office was figuring it out while the guy was plowing in the field.
Just to kind of see how it's not just these traditional roles and career paths that they had imagined or the limitations that they thought were in place. Think beyond that.
We presented to the local group of industry partners. So I had my students who went to Washington DC they kind of did their presentation for that group.
And so it was really fun to watch them respond to that, and they're just like, oh, this is happening at school. Oh, those are the skills we need. I. Especially like my wife works in perennial agriculture, so they do a lot of different basic data analysis, but on the scale of thousands and hundreds of thousands of pieces of data, and I was just hanging out with some of the people that she works with and they're just like, you're teaching your freshman in high school how to use Tableau?
Like, yeah, they can figure it out. There's people that work in finance. They're just kind of like, oh, they can do that. And so you just, you give the kids the tools and they can figure it out. And so yeah, just seeing like people in all sorts of industries and situations, yeah, seeing the relevance of it has kind of helped me to keep plugging along.
Mariah Presley: Why do you think this type of learning, especially coming from where you came from, like why is it so important to students and to the success of a student once they walk out of those doors or graduate and walk across that stage?
Adam Krug: I mean, that's the goal, right? I think the more that they can see things that are practical, that are gonna likely impact their journey and getting 'em to actually see that, and then they're like, oh, okay, well maybe I can actually figure out this task.
I would say in my first couple years teaching chemistry, I would do like. We're gonna take this quiz over these 15 elements and like, how about we just memorize these and
Mariah Presley: Yeah,
Adam Krug: nobody retains that. They would cram for the test, do it and whatever.
And so yeah, we do a lot of labs. We do a lot of activities, and they use it so much that you just know it.
I mean, that's how I knew it. Like I didn't learn all those things, or, I mean, I did learn 'em in high school and college, but then I didn't really know 'em until I did it 20 times.
So that piece of it has just continued on.
Mariah Presley: Programs like these aren't just about what happens in the classroom. They're about connecting students. To the world beyond school and supporting our educators and their mission by engaging with real tools and processes used in industry. Through data analytics, students can take what they've learned, tie it to their passion, and carry the applied skill into the future.
As our educator and residents often says, students don't like learning science, they like doing science. Schools like Adams already have everything they need to make that happen. It's just about empowering both teachers and students with the relevance and the support to bring it to life. And the impact when we do this is incredible.
Adam Krug: One student who's been involved in a lot of the. Presentations that we've given. He did the data analysis of nascar. That's exciting. And basically I let them do whatever they were interested in. You could just tell, like he was super into it and he's like, oh, this tool can help me to actually show all of these things.
And he could tell that story and now he's told it to lots of different people in many, many different settings. But just like seeing that spark for the first time in the class. It was awesome. And then last summer I took him and a few other students that we put together a signature project for the need project and went to Washington, DC and all those things that everything built to the next level and the next level and the next level.
Mariah Presley: If you don't know what the need project is, it stands for National Energy Education Development Project, and they host a national competition that is highly competitive with the goal of recognizing learning and innovation in the area of energy education.
Adam Krug: I would never think that, oh, this is the natural next step, but every time there's an opportunities, the kids would just rise to that next level, and that's been super, super fun to watch.
Mariah Presley: That is exciting. I think I was at that very first presentation you mentioned where some of the students stood up and talked about their project and just standing in the background. I just remember being floored because not only did they have these really interesting, kind of applying the skill of data analytics to whatever their interest was, kind of project, but they stood up in front of a room full of industry professionals and there were probably 40 or 50 people in that room and.
Talked about it with enthusiasm and had their own kind of thoughts and insights around like why it was important and what each piece of data meant, and it was just a really cool thing to see. I was just reading this morning on Ed Week, an article about how there are a fair amount of difficulties bringing these kinds of programs into classrooms, especially at the classroom level.
And I know that you have probably experienced some of that yourself, but I'm just kind of curious about what that looks like or what kind of challenges that you maybe ran into initially getting started with some of this stuff.
Adam Krug: Yeah, it's been a process. I know the first time that I did the data analytics, I was nervous.
I didn't know any of it. It's one of those things where. At that point, I had been teaching over 15 years, and it's hard to get up in front of people and feel like I'm not an expert at this at all.
Mariah Presley: Yeah.
Adam Krug: And so I would say that was kind of that first hurdle to clear. But once I got into like day two and three of it and everything just kind of started working and I could see the engagement level and once I could see them kind of running with it and taken off, that provided me with the energy that I needed to keep pushing and keep. Finding some new stuff and opportunities for 'em,
Mariah Presley: and I think that's like anything new, right? It's always a little like, especially you've never seen it before if it's not your direct experience. Mm-hmm.
That kind of inertia of getting started and, and just moving forward is always maybe that main barrier it seems like.
So I know that you guys have had a lot of opportunities to travel and share more about your projects. Do you wanna just share a little bit more about where you've been recognized for some of the work you're doing and where some of your students have really been showcased for their projects?
Adam Krug: Yeah, I am not somebody who likes to apply for these sorts of things, and, and it hasn't been a, a large part of my teaching career coming up.
So that whole part has been new for me, but way more rewarding than I would've ever thought going into it. 'cause like I mentioned before, they just keep rising to the occasion, so. We went to the state capitol to go to their legislative day. Yeah. And took a lot of their different data visualizations and there was a whole bunch of state legislators and just people in the general public coming through, and the conversations they were having were pretty top notch.
So the kids were. Really getting into it. And that's the thing, like it was, Hey guys, come meet me out front of the school at four 30 in the morning so we can drive to Topeka. And they were like battling for spots in the Suburban. I was like, I can only fit like seven kids in there. I don't want to have three across in the front.
But it was just awesome. So seeing that opportunity and then it was just kind of a natural thing to just try to put it together for the need project. I didn't really quite know what to expect there. And even then when we got to DC I was like, guys there, this is like a science conference. You are gonna have to do some science project in engineering.
They're like, oh, what? Nah. But as soon as they got into it, their competitive juices started flowing and they realized too that it was not like just a science and engineering thing, it was a, you gotta come up with a marketing plan. They could see all these different skills being brought in. Some of the students that I took for that really didn't get into some of the other projects that we were doing, but they found their spot, they found what really makes them tick and makes their skills really shine. And so. That piece has been super, super fun.
Mariah Presley: As we start to wrap up, I'm curious to know why Adam has chosen to invest in this so deeply. What makes a teacher go above and beyond like this?
Adam Krug: I heard a long time ago that they would always say that the jobs that we're preparing the kids for don't exist yet today.
And I, I think this really hit home for me as I was like, you know, they do need to go out there in the world and figure something out. And I had my own experience and
I'm glad that I had an opportunity to go. Over to Europe and figure out my own stuff and my own path and all that. But I think just that piece of, I don't know, stoking that curiosity.
Whenever I write a letter of recommendation for a kid, I feel like that's the biggest compliment I can give 'em is like they're a curious person. Like they want to figure out something about the world and. That's gonna be different for every kid. And so I, I think that that's really where this project all comes together for me is it, it just gives those opportunities for each kid to like find their path or at least one little step along the way.
I tell my students a lot about. Science you can toil away at for years and years and really never get the answer that you're looking for. And your reward, if you do find the answer, is probably a more detailed and complicated question.
Mariah Presley: Yeah.
Adam Krug: To keep studying, you know, like there's, there's just, there's no end to it.
Mariah Presley: That's an awesome lesson. There's always another question, but it's another opportunity to figure it out at the same time. And that's fun.
Adam Krug: You just get another, another bigger question? A more detailed question? Yeah, a more difficult question, but it's not gonna be everybody's monumental thing. I didn't get to take all my students to every conference, but if they have that willingness and that desire to be ready to go, okay, cool. Here's an opportunity, let's do it.
Mariah Presley: So I'm thinking kind of for the other atoms of the world, teaching has never been particularly easy, and there's always a lot of. You guys are held accountable to a lot of different standards, a lot of different regulations. What could you share for other teachers may be interested in jumping into these kinds of programs as maybe some advice that would help them get started and really launch to have some of the success you've had?
Adam Krug: Well, I think I kind of hit on it maybe a little bit before with the just like, don't be afraid.
Mariah Presley: Yeah.
Adam Krug: Just don't be afraid to get a little messy and, and like, don't worry about being the expert. You know, I think. So much of it. Like I still give plenty of, you know, lectures in my classroom. Sometimes I'm up at the front just explaining a concept and this and that, but yeah, but that's not it.
You know, like they don't need me to recite and make them regurgitate those bits of information, even though that's one aspect of it. But yeah, I think just a willingness to get dirty and not have just one possible outcome in mind. That's been my big shift over the last couple years, I think.
Mariah Presley: That's awesome. Well, thank you. Thank you for all the work that you're doing both in Kansas and beyond for the students, and we've really enjoyed working with you as well. So.
Adam Krug: I've really appreciated it and I'm sure you know, that's the fun part too. Like we've come this far, so I guess we'll figure out what's next.
Mariah Presley: What's next? Indeed, this was a great conversation. We all remember that one teacher that made a lasting impact. The one who approached things in a way that stuck with us or believed in us enough to toss us an opportunity where we could really shine. This is the impact that Adam has had on his students, and his story is an important reminder that teaching is more than just sharing today's facts.
It's about helping to build schools that inspire learning. Growth and discovery for generations to come. Thank you to Adam for sharing his journey with us, and thank you for listening. This educational life is all about highlighting the incredible work happening in education and showing how together we can create schools that truly prepare students for the future.
If today's episode resonated with you or you'd like to share your own experiences, we'd love to hear. From you. Email us at this educational life@train.com or suggest a topic for a future episode. Don't forget to rate, review, and follow the podcast wherever you listen, so you never miss an episode. New episodes come out every two weeks.
Thanks again for joining us on this journey. Until next time, let's keep building schools that make a difference for today and tomorrow.
Disclaimer: This podcast is for general informational purposes only. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the panelists and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of trained technologies.
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