Owasso Mid High School Teacher Peggy Alexander
Congratulations to Oklahoma’s 2015 Outstanding Biology Teacher Award recipient, Owasso Mid High School teacher, Peggy Alexander. She began her teaching career in 1988; and has taught at Lomega High School and Watonga High School before moving to Owasso in 2008 where she presently teaches Pre-AP Biology and Biology I. Peggy 
graduated from Southwestern Oklahoma State University with a BS in Medical Technology in 1977 and a Masters in Secondary Education in 1991. She worked for a few years in as a medical technologist before getting certified to teach in 1987. She became a Nationally Board Certified Teacher of AYA Science in 2000 and recertified in 2010. Her list of accomplishments, workshops attended and facilitated, and committees served on and lead, make one think she has done very little sleeping since she became a teacher.
Peggy is a frequent attendee at both NABT and NSTA conferences since 1995 and encouraged others to attend. She has an impressively long list of accomplishments and experiences as a teacher. To list a few, she presented at several of national conferences and is often a presenter at OSTA Fall Conferences. She has traveled to Cold Spring Harbor to take part in the “DNA Bootcamp” and has spent several weeks doing research at OMRF and at Princeton with the Woodrow Wilson Leadership Foundation as a teacher/scholar. She has literally changed the way students learn by incorporating computer and wireless technology at her rural school and is changing the way other teachers teach as one of the Oklahoma’s five STEM master teachers.
Ms. Alexander is a valuable asset to the State of Oklahoma as she seldom allows any opportunity to pass when she can help others; be it her students or mentoring other teachers. “It feels great to have made a difference in the lives of many student, teachers and community members by having been in the right places at the right times, doing the right thing!” Her philosophy of teaching centers on getting students engaged in science and training them to become critical thinkers by practicing the skills and learning to gather evidence. She uses discrepant events and peer review to hone each student’s ability to understand scientific thought. She makes sure no one is left out of class discussions by using fun classroom strategies to include all students and tackles student misconceptions by encouraging them to continually collect and assess evidence.
“My goal has always been to use my training and zest for life to influence students to be the very best individuals and citizens that they can possibly be!” Because of Peggy Alexander’s incredible teaching career and the example of excellence she sets for her students and colleagues she is a very worthy recipient of Oklahoma’s Outstanding Biology Teacher Award.
Every year, the Outstanding Biology Teacher Award (OBTA) program attempts to recognize an outstanding biology educator (grades 7-12 only) in each of the 50 states; Washington, DC; Canada; Puerto Rico; and overseas territories. Candidates for this award do not have to be NABT members, but they must have at least three years of public, private, or parochial school teaching experience. A major portion of the nominee’s career must have been devoted to the teaching of biology/life science, and candidates are judged on their teaching ability and experience, cooperativeness in the school and community, inventiveness, initiative, and student-teacher relationships. OBTA recipients are special guests of Carolina Biology Supply Company at the Honors Luncheon held at the NABT Professional Development Conference, receive gift certificates from Carolina Biological Supply Company, resources from other sponsors, and award certificates and complimentary one-year membership from NABT.
If you know an outstanding biology teacher you would like to nominate, please contact Oklahoma’s OBTA Director, Kay Gamble at kaygamble@gmail.com to nominate them. Self-nominations are encouraged!
