Help TMA reward outstanding Texas Science Teachers!
One elementary school, one middle school, and one high school science teacher will receive $5,000 and an expense-paid trip to TMA's annual conference for the presentation in May 2011! Their schools will receive a $2,000 award for the science curriculum!
The Texas Medical Association's Ernest and Sarah Butler Awards for Excellence in Science Teaching honor teachers who share their energy and enthusiasm for science through creative and innovative methods. TMA created the award in 1990 to reward excellent science teaching in hopes it would encourage young students to become physicians.
In 2011 TMA will once again reward three more outstanding teachers, but first we need to know who they are! Please help us identify excellence in any area of science by nominating teachers or self-nominating if you are a teacher! Both are encouraged! (Nominations are open through Oct. 15, 2010! All nominees will be contacted by TMA and asked to complete an application by Dec. 17, 2010 - see below for the form.)
Online Nomination Form (DEADLINE IS OCT. 15, 2010.)
Download Nomination Form (pdf)
Eligibility
All Texas state-certified, full-time public and private school science teachers with a minimum of two years' classroom experience who will return to teach in a Texas classroom during the 2011-12 school year may apply.
Category
An award will be given to one teacher in each of the following catetories: elementary, middle, and high school.
Evaluation
TMA is proud to have the support of the UT Charles A Dana Center for the evaluation of our applicants.
To Apply for the Award (applicants do not have to be nominated to apply)
Online Application Form (DEADLINE IS DEC. 17, 2010)
Download Application Form (pdf)
To upload your supporting materials, you must register by clicking HERE. If you have already registered, you can return to add additional materials HERE.
(We will accept uploads and emails until midnight, Dec. 17, 2010.)
Contact Information
For more information about the award and application process, please contact:
Attn: Gail Schatte
TMA Excellence in Science Teaching
401 W. 15th St.
Austin, TX 78701-1680
(800) 880-1300, ext. 1600, or (512) 370-1600
E-mail: Gail Schatte
Congratulations to the 2010 Winners!
Pictured left to right: Lollie Garay of Redd School in Houston; George Hademenos, PhD, of Richardson High School in Richardson; and Nikki Skinner of Almeda Elementary School in Houston.
The Texas Medical Association (TMA) has awarded two Houston teachers and one Dallas-area teacher the 2010 TMA Ernest and Sarah Butler Awards for Excellence in Science Teaching.
Nikki Skinner of Almeda Elementary in Houston, Dolores (Lollie) Garay of Redd School in Houston, and George Hademenos, PhD, of Richardson High School in Richardson won this year’s elementary, middle, and high school honors respectively.
The TMA Ernest and Sarah Butler Awards for Excellence in Science Teaching honor educators who share their energy and enthusiasm for science through creative and innovative methods. TMA created the award 20 years ago to reward excellent science teaching in hopes of encouraging young students to become physicians.
“This program allows TMA to honor the commitment of these science teachers while they are making an impact on their students,” said A. Tomas Garcia, MD, member of the TMA Board of Trustees Special Committee overseeing TMA’s science teacher awards competition.
Physician leaders recognized the teachers at TMA’s annual conference, TexMed, in Fort Worth in April. TMA awarded each recipient a $5,000 cash prize and a $2,000 school resource grant at an awards ceremony during a meeting of the House of Delegates, TMA’s governing body.
“Children cannot learn in the dark. Nor can they learn in a vacuum. The teaching of science requires a light that surrounds and a curriculum that is palpable,” said Michael E. Speer, MD, who also serves on the board’s award committee. “Great science teachers can supply that luminosity and content. That, in turn, energizes the student.”
Volunteers from The University of Texas at Austin’s Charles A. Dana Center helped judge the applicants’ entries, and the board’s award committee made the final selections.
Meet the winners of the 2010 TMA Ernest and Sarah Butler Awards for Excellence in Science Teaching:
Nikki Skinner — Elementary School Winner
When Nikki Skinner looks at her fifth-graders at Alameda Elementary in Houston, she sees budding scientists. “The engineers, scientists, doctors of tomorrow are sitting in a fifth-grade classroom today. If we do not capture their imagination and encourage them to think for tomorrow we are all lost,” Ms. Skinner said. Ms. Skinner is the fifth-grade lead science teacher at Almeda, and she has been teaching in Houston Independent School District for 18 years. In January, she finished the master of arts in science education capstone course at Western Governors University.
Dolores (Lollie) Garay — Middle School Winner
Dolores (Lollie) Garay has racked up an impressive résumé in her 37 years of teaching — education outreach team member at Johnson Space Center in Houston, science education leadership fellow mentor at Baylor College of Medicine, and past project teacher at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. Ms. Garay holds a master of science in teaching from Rice University. She is the seventh-grade science teacher and coordinator at Redd School, a private school in Houston. “When I look at my students, I wonder what the future will be like for them, and I realize the awesome responsibility I face every day. Not by what I do, but what I need to empower the students to do: to become pro-active learners,” she said.
George Hademenos — High School Winner
George Hademenos, PhD, makes physics come alive for juniors and seniors at Richardson High School in Richardson near Dallas. Dr. Hademenos earned his doctor of philosophy in physics in 1991 from The University of Texas at Dallas and his master of education in school administration in 2005 from Angelo State University. In August 2001, he left his role as a staff scientist with the American Heart Association in Dallas to become a teacher. “At one point throughout the year, I am asked by at least one student the following question: ‘Dr. H, with all that you have done, why would you give it up to teach us?’ I respond simply with ‘Why not?’ The silence that follows is deafening and the smiles that ensue are priceless,” he said.
The TMA Ernest and Sarah Butler Awards for Excellence in Science Teaching are supported by the TMA Foundation, the philanthropic arm of TMA, thanks to an endowment established by Dr. and Mrs. Ernest C. Butler of Austin. Each year additional gifts are needed to fully fund this program, and this year, the majority of this support is due to the generosity of the following top donors: Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas, Dr. Donald R. and Mrs. Doris Johnson of Roanoke, and Dr. Clifford and Diane Moy of Austin.
To Donate
To make a tax-deductible donation to the TMA Ernest and Sarah Butler Awards for Excellence in Science Teaching Program, visit the TMA Foundation. For more on the programs the foundation funds, contact Lisa Stark Walsh, TMA Foundation, at (800) 880-1300, ext. 1666, or (512) 370-1666, or e-mail Lisa Stark Walsh.
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Past Excellence in Science Teaching Award Winners
Year
|
Winner Names - School, City (when available)
|
2010
|
Nikki Skinner
Almeda Elementary
Houston
|
Dolores Garay
Redd School
Houston
|
George Hademenos, PhD
Richardson High School
Richardson
|
2009
|
Susana Ramirez
Reed & Mock Elementary
San Juan
|
Robert Boucher
Christa McAuliffe Middle School
San Antonio
|
Adriano Gonzalez
Oliver Wendell Holmes High School
San Antonio
|
2008
|
Michelle Yates
Bess Race Elementary
Crowley
|
Jill Bailer
Jane Long Middle School
Houston
|
Bradley Neu
Lubbock High School
Lubbock
|
2007
|
Amy Hill
Lubbock Christian Schools
Lubbock
|
Nancy Schunke
Dunbar Middle School
Lubbock
|
Sarah Joy Anderson
Frenship High School
|
| 2006 |
Kara Webb
Shallowater, TX
|
|
|
| 2005 |
Sue Rolf and Jean Ann Keen
Dunbar Elementary
Lufkin
|
Joy Killough
Westwood High School
Austin
|
|
| 2004 |
Debra Fleming
Aikin Elementary
Paris
|
Bobby Pierce
Whitney High School
Whitney
|
|
| 2003 |
Sue Rolf and Jean Ann Keen
Dunbar Elementary
Lufkin
|
|
|
| 2002 |
Jean Durrett
Maedgen Elementary
Lubbock
|
Melita Rodriguez
United Day School
Laredo
|
Karen Wheeler-Hall
LaPorte High School
La Porte
|
| 2001 |
Bobby Pierce
Whitney High School
Whitney
|
|
|
| 2000 |
Sandra Geisbush
Encino Park Elementary
San Antonio
|
Susan Sanders
Central Junior High School
Pollok
|
Carol Frawley
Virginia A Stacey Senior High
San Antonio
|
| 1999 |
Edwinna Bernat
S.C. Red Science and Math Elementary
Houston
|
Cynthia Radle,
Travis Middle School
Temple
|
John Terry
Denison High School
Denison
|
| 1998 |
Dona Hendrickson
Friona
|
Suzanne Warmann
Sugar Land
|
Sherry Martin
Americas High School
El Paso
|
| 1997 |
Patricia Jones
J Houston Elementary
Austin
|
Terry Dickson
Grapevine Middle School
Grapevine
|
Robert Miller
La Porte High School
La Porte
|
| 1996 |
David Palmer
Valley Creek Elementary
McKinney
|
Rosemary Martin
Milliken Middle School
|
Suzanne Thacker
Jersey Village High School
Houston
|
| 1995 |
Tanya Close
Pine forest Elementary
Humble
|
Cynthia Martinez-Bagwell
VW Miller Intermediate
Pasadena
|
Betsy Carpenter
Bastrop High School
Bastrop
|
| 1994 |
Susan Pruter Swan
Little Cypress Intermediate Elementary
Orange
|
Deborah Linscomb
Angleton Middle School
Angleton
|
Carolyn Schofield
Robert E Lee High School
Tyler
|
| 1993 |
Ann McAdam |
Andrea Foster |
Kathryn Powell |
| 1992 |
Jane C. Hill
Northside Elementary
Arlington
|
Melinda Mills
Clear Lake Intermediate School
Houston
|
Robert Dennison
Jersey Village High School
Houston
|
| 1991 |
Jim Weber
Oliver Wendell Holmes High School
San Antonio
|
|
|
| 1990 |
Michael Hoke
West Orange Middle School Orange
|
|
|
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