Dr. Nielsen Pereira, assistant professor in the School of Teacher Education in WKU’s College of Education and Behavioral Sciences, recently presented at the fifth biennial meeting of the Brazilian Council for Gifted Education (ConBraSD) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Dr. Nielsen Pereira
Dr. Pereira presented two paper sessions and also participated in a roundtable with three other Brazilian researchers/educators, who discussed their experiences working with gifted students in the United States. Dr. Pereira talked about his experience as an administrator and educator in out-of-school, university-based gifted programs. Gifted programs are still not widely available in schools and universities in Brazil and Dr. Pereira encouraged Brazilian educators and administrators to offer university-based programs such as the ones offered by The Center for Gifted Studies on WKU’s campus.
The theme of this year’s ConBraSD meeting was “Culture, Science, and Technology” and Dr. Pereira also talked about the STEAM LabsTM program and the Rube Goldbergineering class, which he helped develop and taught in the Summer Program for Verbally and Mathematically Precocious Youth (VAMPY) this summer. Dr. Pereira plans to train educators in Brazil to use the STEAM LabsTM curriculum, so that similar courses can be offered in Brazilian schools.
Contact: Nielsen Pereira, (270) 745-4140
