Presidential Award for Excellence in Science Teaching

The Presidential Award is the nation's highest honor for teachers of mathematics and science (including computer science). Awardees serve as models for their colleagues, inspiration to their communities, and leaders in the improvement of mathematics and science education. The following teachers have been selected as national and state finalists.

Oregon Department of Education Science Specialist, Noelle Gorbett presented awards to Oregon's Finalists.

2019 State Finalists

2019 OSTA Outstanding Teaching Awardees

This award is named in honor of Fred Fox, a distinguished and well-loved teacher educator from Oregon State university (1957-82). The award is intended to honor those individuals who have made outstanding contributions to mentoring and developing new teachers. It is intended for nominees involved in teacher training programs at the college level, ESD, district administrators or other administrative positions. The awardee is selected based on career longevity, breadth of influence, enthusiasm for science and the profession of science education, and the demonstrated ability to motivate.

Adele Schepige, Western Oregon University, Monmouth, OR

Adele has been a Science Teacher educator at WOU for more than 30 years and has participated in a number of national and statewide initiatives to better prepare both elementary and secondary teachers and promote science education. She has been a previous OSTA board member and has partcipated in many joint OSTA teacher development projects.

The Sunrise Scholarship Award was established by long-time OSTA Board Member, Lynn Mitchell.  Lynn was a science teacher at Hood River High school, and spent many years on the OSTA board in a number of capacities.  His vision for this scholarship was to support early career teachers to get involved with their professional organization, take advantage of the resources available through being a member, and setting the stage for the next generation of science leaders in OSTA. The Sunrise Scholarship is used to pay registration to attend the next two (2) OSTA Statewide Conferences, and a 2-year membership in OSTA.

Blake Poynor, Crook County Middle School, Prineville, OR

Blake is committed to the profession and is always searching for opportunities to improve his practice. He is dedicated to his students and would be a likely candidate for working with OSTA on statewide initiatives. Blake shared reflections on his teaching practice with OSTA last year, when he wrote an article that appeared in the November 2018 edition of The Oregon Science Teacher entitled “Grounding the Next Generation in Place.” In the article, Blake shared his experiences at the conference and how he planned to take what he had learned into his classroom.

Regional Awards

These awards are meant to recognize and honor the work of outstanding classroom teachers in the categories of Early Career, Elementary, Middle, and High School.  From every region in Oregon, awardees are selected based on their ability to motivate student achievement and excitement in science.

Region 1: Multnomah, Clackamas, Columbia, & Clatsop Counties

Sara Tyler, Mountainside High School, Beaverton, OR
Early Career

Sara is an enthusiastic, dedicated professional teacher. She is collaborative and creative, hard-working and considerate, she is a great colleague. Students appreciate her and she brings out the best in them. She is beginning a wonderful career in education.

Dionne Marshall, Warrenton Grade School, Warrenton, OR
Middle School
Dionne is the best with children. She always gives them something to think about and to figure out. She’s always striving to better our programs!

Jessyca Chamberlain, Southridge High School, Beaverton, OR
High School
Jessyca works tirelessly both for her students and for teachers across the state who have used the Patterns Biology curriculum she has contributed substantially to. Jessy has strong relationships and engages her students in the science practices every day. She also consistently provides language supports, reaches out to students who miss school or are struggling at home, and is a passionate advocate for science equity both in her school and across the state through her professional development work. Jessy is an innovator in the NGSS, and has played a critical role in developing storylines, phenomena, assessments, and discussion protocols that teachers across the state are utilizing to implement the high school life science NGSS standards in their classrooms.  On top of her science leadership, Jessy coaches softball, advises Key Club, and teaches IB Biology (where she has encouraged a record number of students to enroll in this course of rigor). She truly has an inclusive, inquisitive, and exciting classroom and is pushing science education forward.

Monica Garcia, Southridge High School, Beaverton, OR
High School
Monica has been a force for equity and science education. Tirelessly working for her all her students, she often reworks shared materials so they will be accessible for all her students. She teaches multiple preps and in multiple languages. Her work is visually stunning and she openly shares it, so many educators and students benefit from it. Further, Monica is vocal in the larger education ecosystem to challenge inequity and passionately advocates for student needs. She is a true equity champion.

Joe Minato, Lincoln High School, Portland, OR
High School
I have known Joe Minato for three years as a colleague and friend. He is one of the kindest and sincere people I’ve ever met. Students are so drawn to his magnetic personality and teaching style that he routinely teaches over 180 in AP Physics 1 each semester because he doesn’t want to turn anyone away. Our school doesn’t offer AP Physics with Calculus, so Joe voluntarily teaches the content in the evenings to students who want to take the exam. He does not get paid for this. Outside the classroom, Joe does significant community work. In just two years, he has grown an astronomy club so large that they have had to subdivide into three teams that focus telescope building, research, and outreach. Joe regularly hosts star parties on the Wilson campus, connecting students with the Rose City Astronomers who bring their telescopes and guide students to explore planets, nebulae, and galaxies. These events are critical in reaching kids who don’t see themselves as scientists. Every summer Joe runs an astronomy camp at Pine Mountain Observatory in Central Oregon. Again, he does not get paid to do this. He is a mentor for early-mid career teachers, like myself, will always take time to help brainstorm solutions to problems whether regarding a student, a lab activity, or life. He is the most loved and respected teacher I know in our community of SW Portland. I can think of no one better deserving of an award.

Dave Savage, Century High School, Hillsboro, OR
High School
Dave Savage is a true professional educator, modeling that the best educators are lifelong learners. A veteran in the classroom, Dave has brought decades of experience teaching high school physics into Oregon where he has been a foundational support for the Hillsboro School District in implementing the Patterns Approach. He has mentored and coached his colleagues, participated in regional professional learning, and serves on the Physics Council, as sponsored by the Portland Metro STEM Partnership. Dave's experience and early adoption has made him not only a popular and effective teacher, but also a teacher-leader in Hillsboro. He is very deserving of OSTA recognition!

Region 2: Tillamook, Yamhill, Polk, Marion, Linn, Benton & Lincoln Counties

Madison Delong, Silverton High School, Silverton, OR
Early Career
I have been so impressed with Madison over the past few years! She's hit the ground running like a pro and her students love her. Madison is constantly looking for ways to draw her students in and capture their interests in her courses. She differentiates content effectively by working closely with our LRC teachers and developing/overseeing our basic skills science concepts class. You would be hard pressed to find a more deserving candidate.

Danielle Flood, Stayton High School, Stayton, OR
Early Career
Danielle has a keen scientific mind and understanding of science standards. She has implemented rigorous curriculum and high expectations for her students, connecting their learning to real-world scenarios and giving them tools and strategies to think like scientists. Mrs. Flood is rapidly becoming a teacher leader and is eager to learn. She seeks out coaching and feedback from both myself and an instructional coach in our district and she rapidly responds to and implements suggestions. Last year Mrs. Flood took on a huge leadership role in her department when one of her colleagues needed to unexpectedly retire early. Mrs. Flood worked hand-in-had with a long term substitute who was not trained in science, developing lessons and assessments for him and even assisting in grading student work. She is truly a team player, dedicated to her own life-long learning and the success of her students.

Angie Wright, Neskowin Valley School, Neskowin, OR
Elementary
Angie has created programs within our school this past year to lead her students in their own community activism projects as they have used their voices to raise awareness and analyze data about tourism and hotels, and the litter that added to Lincoln County beaches because of natural, and human made factors.

Ian Niktab, Nellie Muir Elementary, Woodburn, OR
Elementary
Ian has been our ‘Science Guy’ since the very first day he started working in Nellie Muir. He has been in charge of our school garden, Smile program and school pond, among many other things. He was also part of the district workforce that piloted and picked the new science curriculum for our district. Ian, as a botanist and a teacher, has always found ways to incorporate science in his classroom. Through his lessons, he has been able to invite all his students into a magical world in which every student is able to explore their own curiosity on how our world works. How are earthquakes made? Why is the rain not salty? Why is our blood red? How do volcanoes work? How can we clean the oceans? All these questions are just a few questions that his students started asking themselves on the very first day of science this year. His inquiry based learning engages students and thanks to many hands-on activities, he has bee able to enhance student learning in a fun and interesting manner for everyone. It is not weird to see Ian wearing his tall boots in our pond fixing the filter or adding Wapato plants for our turtles to eat.

Michelle Borst, Dayton Junior High, Dayton, OR
Middle School
Michelle has been a leading force in establishing a high-quality STEM-based program at Dayton Junior High School.  Several years ago, she sought funding to start robotics programs at both Dayton Junior High School and Dayton High School.  Although both programs are new, they have become some of the better small-school programs in Oregon.  She also led the efforts to modernize the Science curriculum at Dayton Junior High, raising the bar on all of the Science Inquiry projects in the school. In addition, Michelle has started several design principle courses through the nationally recognized Innovate Dayton program.

Britton Castor, Falls City High School, Falls City, OR
High School
Britton has been teaching first at Kings Valley Charter School 5-12 science and now at Fall City High School as a Chemistry and Environmental Science teacher.  She has developed a culture in her classroom that has students seeing themselves as scientists and speaking and writing like scientists.  She has greatly influenced the science culture in her rural locations to elevate science once more as a most important area of study convincing her administration, parents, colleagues and most importantly students.

Region 3: Lane, Douglas, Coos, & Curry County

Halli Roussell, Lincoln Middle School, Cottage Grove, OR
Early Career
Halli is an inspired teacher who draws on her experiences leading summer science camp activities and conducting neuroscience research to make learning engaging, fun, current, authentic, and relevant for her middle schoolers. Halli connects with her students, their needs and interests. To engage and prepare students for a curriculum filled with student-driven investigations, Halli starts the year with labs such as “how much sugar is in your bubblegum?” and “what do scientists look like?” Sensitive to her students’ lives, Halli stocks a food pantry in her classroom to ensure no students go hungry. I see Halli as a future teacher-leader.

Angela Ruzicka, Cal Young Middle School, Eugene, OR
Middle School
Angie has been a valuable colleague for me (teaching at the community college level). She tells me about curriculum design at the middle school level that incorporates NGSS standards. I watched her teach preservice science and math teachers as part of the UO MAT program. Her careful attention to detail and planning for that level of curriculum greatly impressed me. I work at the national level on introductory biology curriculum design in higher education and Angie helps me understand the middle school science perspective and suggests readings. We often discuss interdisciplinary topics like quantitative biology. Her positive attitude towards student achievement keeps me going.

Christopher Emmick, North Douglas High School, Drain, OR
High School
Simply, Chris's enthusiasm for science and the pursuit of knowledge is contagious. Being at the ESD, I have the opportunity to work with all of the science teachers in my county. Chris stands out as a leader in the field, an inspiration to his students, and a pride to the profession.

Region 4: Josephine, Jackson, Klamath & Lake Counties

Nicole Spangler, Eagle Rock Elementary, Eagle Point, OR
Elementary
Nicole makes science learning fun and engaging in her classroom. She knows that the curriculum doesn’t have the material needed to master the standard, and takes the steps to supplement with other materials. She is an amazing educator with a passion for her students.

Region 5: Hood River, Wasco, Sherman, Gilliam, Wheeler, Marrow Umatilla & Grant Counties

Region 6: Jefferson, Cook, Deschutes, & Harney Counties

Raleigh Shepler, Crane Elemetary, Crane, OR
Early Career
Raleigh is a young, energetic teacher, who has stepped up to making time for science in her busy second and third grade classroom. She makes it fun for the kids and includes engaging strategies that is NGSS aligned to help students learn and think like scientists. She has expressed a need for more science support, therefore I feel she is a great candidate for this award!

Jennifer Hauser	Stacey Moser

Fields Elementary, Fields, OR
K-8
Jennifer along with her colleague Stacey work as a team to incorporate their science instruction within the K-8 classroom.  They work hard to provide the best science opportunities in their very remote (frontier) school district in South Harney, taking field trips to explore sun stones, caves, hot springs, etc. that are natural and abundant.  They provide intriguing phenomena in every unit and teach students how to critically think about science.  They work hard to understand how to teach NGSS and ask for help when needed.  As a team, their science instruction is stellar!

Region 7: Wallowa, Union, Baker & Malheur Counties