Chemical Education Today
Report
Reflections on the 2002 Presidential Awards for Secondary Science Teaching by Mary E. Harris
Application Process I encourage everyone to consider applying for this award. In my case, the application included a ten-page paper and two pages of photographs of my teaching and professional activities, supported by recommendation letters from students and colleagues. However, the guidelines changed this year to require nomination by a principal, another teacher, student, parent, or a member of the public. A video of a classroom lesson is a required part of the application packet, which makes the process similar to that required for consideration for National Board certification. Information about the awards and the process is available at http://www.ehr.nsf.gov/ pres_awards. This site provides the application form and the addresses of state coordinators. Beginning this year, the awards will alternate between secondary and elementary teachers; the
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photo Richard Cline
The Presidential Awards for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching have been given annually since 1983 by the National Science Foundation (NSF) to four teachers from each state: for elementary mathematics and elementary science, and for secondary mathematics and secondary science. I was fortunate to win the secondary science award for my state in 2002. The award includes travel to Washington, DC, for each winner and a guest, and several days of recognition, tours, and pampering. My husband, Hal Harris, and I have just returned from an unforgettable week in the capital with the other 2002 Awardees. I have never been treated so royally nor received so many kind words from important people in the government. On a day when protests closed the White House to everyone else, we were given a tour and met Laura Bush, who congratulated us on our accomplishments and encouraged the continuation of our work. The official award ceremony was held in the atrium of the Ronald Reagan Building and featured Rita Colwell, Director of NSF, and John Marburger III, Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy. Other highlights of the week included dinners in the formal dining room of the State Department and in the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, where a private premiere showing of the IMAX film “Coral Reefs” was arranged. Each awardee also receives $7500 to use for classroom supplies, professional development, or other educational purposes.
Mary Harris holds her Presidential Citation after the March 2003 award ceremony in the Ronald Reagan Federal Building.
2003 awards (to be presented in March 2004) will be for secondary teachers only, but the deadline for applications was May 1, 2003. The 2004 awards will be given to elementary teachers. So secondary teachers have until 2005 to consider what would best display their teaching philosophy and practices. Materials Submitted My essay described a capstone “May Project” for my firstyear chemistry students in which teams of four complete eight open-ended activities in four, double-period laboratories. These activities require skills and concepts that have been taught throughout the year. Some of them are easy and some are quite challenging. Jonathan Bergmann, the secondary science awardee from Colorado, described his adaptation of a microscale laboratory in determining cell potentials using metals and solutions on filter paper. Neither of these lessons involved the development of totally new ideas, but they did require the creative use of chemical activities to teach and reinforce concepts. Mary E. Harris teaches at John Burroughs School, 755 South Price Road, St. Louis, MO 63124;
[email protected].
Journal of Chemical Education • Vol. 80 No. 6 June 2003 • JChemEd.chem.wisc.edu
