ZACHARY – Copper Mill Elementary School science teacher Regena Hartley Beard was approached with an “opportunity” 11 years ago by her principal.
Beard was going to be teaching a robotics class.
“I had never touched a robot in my life,” Beard said. “I liked how my principal worded that – ‘an opportunity – but he was right, it changed my career path. I’m super grateful for that opportunity, even if I didn’t think it was one at the time.”
Beard is still teaching robotics 11 years later, and her integration of STEM and computer science components into her fifth-grade science class is part of why she was named the 2026 Louisiana Teacher of the Year. Beard accepted the award, and the accompany Mercedes-Benz, in a ceremony July 26 at the National WWII Museum in New Orleans.
“It still hasn’t sunk in, and I’m super proud just to have been nominated,” said Beard, who founded coding and robotics clubs at her school. “To know that my peers thought that highly of me, and to keep advancing round after round in a state with thousands of brilliant educators, it’s amazing to be recognized in that way.”
The 21-year veteran of the Zachary Community School District believes that children’s exposure to STEM at young ages is critical to develop their interest in the area.
“I’ll use my son as an example – he had options to take band and choir in elementary school, and he’s still in the band today,” Beard said. “STEM is our future, and if we’re not exposing our students to STEM at younger ages, they are missing out.
“This kind of exposure gives them more opportunity to expand their view of the world when they are younger. Maybe it’s not for them, but they need to know what’s out there.”
In addition to fifth-grade science classes, Beard teaches a sixth-grade robotics class.
“A lot of my fifth-grade students do want to take robotics in the sixth grade,” said Beard, who added that science didn’t interest her growing up. “Students who haven’t been exposed to these concepts might see ‘robotics’ on the course list and automatically be afraid of it because they’ve never done it.
“But even minimal exposure to these concepts can generate excitement.”
One cornerstone of fifth-grade science class is exploring how matter moves through the ecosystem – the cycle of moving from plant producers to animal consumers to decomposers and back into the soil that enriches plants.
Instead of writing or drawing about this cycle, Beard’s students create animations through block coding on lab computers.
“Students are very excited to engage in the content in this way,” Beard said. “We certainly don’t do integration with every assignment because you have to teach them how to code first, but we pick and choose what assignments lend themselves to integration.
“Students work with a partner, and this project incorporates social skills, collaboration, evaluation of your partner – things that go beyond the science and computer science curriculum. It allows for development of social and emotional skills.”
Beard is integral to district and state teaching advisory councils in preparing guides for teachers to integrate computer science concepts into their lessons.
The fourth-grade framework is published with guides for grades 3-5 and K-2 on track to be published before the end of the school year.
“The feedback from teachers and administrators was great at the Louisiana Teacher Leader Summit this summer,” Beard said. “Leaders and educators are excited because these are things that can be done without too much extra work.”
Beard, who was named nominated for the Presidential Award for Excellence in 2022 (and earned that honor this January), said once her classroom career ends, she wants to assist other teachers in this implementation.
That national nomination opened her mind to that possibility and spurred her to pursue a master’s degree in curriculum and instruction with a concentration in STEM education.
Beard graduated in 2023 from LSU Shreveport.
“Being a state finalist for the Presidential Award (which she eventually won) made me think that maybe I can go somewhere with this, to have people believe in me on a national level,” said Beard, who’s also been named the Outstanding Science Teacher of the Year by the Louisiana Science Teachers Association. “Without that (national) nomination, I don’t think I would have stepped outside of my comfort zone (and pursue a master’s degree).
“I loved the accelerated online format of LSUS’s program and that it fit into my schedule and career timeline.”
Beard specifically shouted out the class on professional learning communities and professor Heather Howle, who specializes in STEM instructional design and integration.
“Howle was phenomenal and so personal – we’ve met in person at the Louisiana Department of Education,” Beard said. “Some of the units we wrote in those LSUS classes I use in my classrooms today.”
