The 2012 Awards winners will be honored at a special reception to be held the evening before the OSTA Fall Conference. The award winners, nominated by members and selected by the OSTA Awards Committee will receive their recognition at 6:30 pm, Friday, November 9th in the Nautilus Room inside Aquaticus at the Oklahoma City Zoo. Entry is through the OKC Zoo Education Building on the East side of the Zoo’s main parking lot. From there you can take the short walk to Aquaticus. (Get a Zoo Map HERE) (Get a Google Map TO the Zoo HERE)
Due to a generous contribution from Pearson and other considerations from the Oklahoma City Zoo, this event is now FREE!. But you still need to register so we can properly prepare for the festivities.
It you have not yet registered for the conference, the reduced, pre-conference registration rate is still in effect through November 9th. Just indicate your attendance when you complete the registration. If you have already registered, but now which to attend this event, you can enter the OSTA on-line conference registration system, enter your information, and indicate you are paying by check (even though you are not), and make a note in the space provided for check or purchase order information.
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This year, OSTA will honor the Oklahoma Energy Resources Board with the Jack Renner Award, the highest honor we can give to an organization, community leader, or educator. Jack was an outstanding national leader in science education during his tenure at the University of Oklahoma and OSTA reserves this award for the outstanding Oklahomans and Oklahoma organizations that have made significant impact on science education in this state.
The OERB began its student education efforts with the launch of its one-of-a-kind energy curriculum called Fossils to Fuel, geared toward third through sixth grade students. Since then, the OERB has added seven other curricula for kindergarten through high school students. The OERB reaches more than 100,000 students annually through its energy education efforts. The organization also uses funds to provide supplies for teachers to implement the OERB curricula in their classrooms, pay for student field trip admission and transportation costs and fund teacher workshop trainings.
Since 2005, an additional $1.5 million has funded academic scholarships for students at the University of Oklahoma, Oklahoma State University and the University of Tulsa. The OERB awards up to $500,000 in scholarships each year. From curricula to teacher training, the OERB believes in empowering the students in this state. At a time when Oklahoma school budgets are at their tightest, the OERB is answering the call, providing supplies, resources and field trips.
The OERB has spent millions funding education programs in the state of Oklahoma. Educating our children begins by arming our teachers with the right tools. OERB has eight programs that include Little Bits for kindergarten through second grade students, Fossils to Fuel 1 and 2 for elementary school students, Petro Active for middle school students and Core Energy (four programs in one) for high school students. Since 1996, the organization has spent $20 million funding student education efforts throughout the state of Oklahoma.
We will also honor Dr. Robbie McCarty with the Outstanding College/University Educator Award. Dr. McCarty chose research by trade and entered the world of teaching to provide students quality science education unlike the experience of her children at that time. She has taught science at all levels from middle school to college and also has experience in rural as well as urban schools. Dr. McCarty is an active advocate for teacher professional development and gives of herself endlessly to help teachers better there teaching as well as writing grants to supply their classrooms to ensure quality science education. Dr. McCarty was public school teacher and a member of the OSTA Board of Directors for many years before earning her Doctorate from the University of Oklahoma and ultimately assuming a faculty position at Southwestern Oklahoma State University.
For many years she has been instrumental in presenting a series of Gear Up Workshops for teachers of science from all across Oklahoma. This series included a basic level workshop as well as an advanced and professional level for returning participants. She has also been an instrumental unit in the MSP (Math Science Partnership) workshops that have been presented in southwest Oklahoma at Altus, Clinton, and also SWOSU. In addition she has been an advocate in helping teachers write and receive grants as well as being an evaluator for several statewide MSP projects.
Dr. McCarty is officially retiring from her work at SWOSU as an Associate Profession in the Chemistry Department and will be continuing to teach as an Adjunct Professor in the Areas of Science Education and Chemistry.
Peggy Alexander will receive the Outstanding High School Teacher Award. Now teaching in Owasso, Peggy served as treasurer on the OSTA board for 5 years. She serves as Science Department Chair and as the “unofficial” vertical team coordinator. She was an OSDE master teacher and made science presentations at the SDE regional meetings (about formative assessment and inquiry activities) and also at OSTA, representing Tulsa Community College’s Biotechnology department. She has been active in the Tulsa Community College Biotech program and serves as the point of contact for teachers in my area for teachers that want to check out Biotech equipment from TCC. She has served as a mentor for freshmen Bio majors at Northeastern as part of the “Bridge” project and attended the evolution workshop at OU Bio Station and shared lessons with colleagues.
Peggy is always looking for, and responding to, the positive in everything her students and colleagues do! She try to help with whatever science related things they get excited about and works to continuously update her teaching through the use of research proven techniques. Besides inquiry and constructivism methods, she use Paige Keeley’s formative assessments, and utilized the Marzano techniques she learned at a special two day workshop at NSTA Atlanta.
The Outstanding Middle School Teacher Award will be presented to Codee Becknel, who teachers at Longfellow Middle School in Norman. Codee a very innovative science teacher who is willing to take instructional “risks” in her classroom. She applies her experiences from multiple professional development activities to her classroom. Her students continually ask investigatable questions and then design activities to gather and analyze data to gather evidence that address their questions. Looking around her classroom you see evidence of differentiation for her students. She has provided a pictorial labeling system for her science materials and a word wall to assist her ELL and IEP students. She has provided global, verbal students with a question “parking lot” so they can record their “what if” questions without getting the current discussion off track. Codee’s innovations make her a great science teacher!
Professional development is an important part of Codee’s life as a teacher. She is constantly attending PD workshops to enable her to better reach ALL students in her classroom. Codee has attended the Putnam City/ OU/ Norman Public Schools Math Science Partnership Program for the past four years. This program provides teachers with a research experience in engineering, life science, or earth science for 1/2 the day and a pedagogy experience involving inquiry and integration, assessment, differentiation, and teacher leadership in the afternoon. She has been a part of the CREST institute at the University of Oklahoma. She participates in the district GET FIT conference.
Tammy Trumble will be presented with the Outstanding Elementary Teacher Award. Tammy teaches at Washington Elementary School in Norman. Her nominator notes: “As you enter Tammy’s classroom you are struck by the level of engagement of her students. They are actively involved in constructing science concepts through inquiry activities that require the collection of data. Students use this data to negotiate their understanding of science concepts. Moving from observing the students to examining the decor of her classroom you find evidence of preassessment to diagnose student prior knowledge. Moving to another wall you find a song that provides reenforcement for the characteristics of the three types of rocks (integrating multiple intelligences). Tammy has also written grants which provide her students the opportunity to partner with scientists from a local museum to examine the ecology of a local wilderness area.”
Tammy is a member of the NPS Elementary Science Advisory Board. This body is the primary leadership/communication mechanism for the district. Tammy has been instrumental in implementing major science staff development initiatives (such as changing to standards based grading in science) at her site and across the district. Ms. Trumble has been involved in many professional learning activities. She has attended the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History Teacher Summer institute. She has taken part in our districts GET FIT conference as a presenter and a participant. Tammy has also been involved in several book studies sponsored by the district. These included Primary Science by Wynne Harlan and Ready, Set, Science.
There will be other recognitions and announcements made at the OSTA Awards Reception. Come enjoy the space in Aquaticus and refreshments provided by the generosity of our event sponsors and join us in recognizing these,and other outstanding educators and organizations who do so much to advance science education in Oklahoma.
Sponsored by:
