Teachers Win AAAS/Subaru Essay Award

Ten science teachers have been awarded the AAAS/Subaru Essay Writing Competition Award for their essays on designing science lesson plans and integrating technology in the classroom.

The awards, presented 17 February at the AAAS Annual Meeting, recognized five teachers with first-prize prizes and five others with honorable mentions. The teachers, from across the United States and Canada, were cited for their wealth of knowledge about bringing innovative science into the classroom.

The winners all received a free pass to the Annual Meeting, a stipend to cover portions of their transportation, and a free one-year subscription to Science Books and Films (SB&F), a teachers guide to science resources for all ages.

"Teaching and learning science can be both dynamic and challenging," said Suzanne Thurston, project manager in AAAS Education and Human Resources. "Based on the essays received this year, educators are clearly having success."

Currently in its fifth year, the competition received a record number of entries from teachers around the country describing methods for teaching science effectively and creatively.

In one essay, Eric Walters, a teacher at the Marymount School of New York, wrote about his course on meteorology in which the students created audio and video forecasts.

"As a result of this project," Walters wrote, "the students learned basic journalism and weather reporting skills," along with "the study of meteorology."

AAAS/Subaru Essay Writing Competition Award Winners:

First Place:

• Jody Calabro, Cleveland Middle School, Brookline, Mass.
• Mary Ellen Lennon, Bard HS Early College, Brooklyn, N.Y.
• Diane Perito, Malden High School, Malden, Mass.
• Nitzan Resnick, South Area Solomon Schechter Day School, Stoughton, Mass.
• Eric Walters, Marymount School of New York, New York, N.Y.

Honorable Mention:

• Gabriel Ayyavoo, Francis Libermann Catholic High School, Toronto, Canada
• Mary Cowhey, Jackson St. School, Northampton, Mass.
• Lollie Garay, Redd School, Spring, Tex.
• Mary Johansson, student teacher, East Falmouth, Mass.
• Helen Kittredge, Sunderland Elementary, South Deerfield, Mass.

The winners were recognized at noon at the Subaru booth in the Exhibition Hall at the Annual Meeting in San Francisco.

17 February 2007