Application Information- the voting and submissions are now closed for 2012

2012 Teacher of the Year- Jonna Gentry-Green Mountain High School at Lakewood, Colorado

The AAPG Foundation, will award $5,000 at the April 2012 AAPG Annual Convention to an individual teacher for Excellence in the Teaching of Natural Resources in the Earth Sciences. The award will include $2,500 for use under the teacher's supervision for educational purposes and $2,500 for personal use by the teacher. The winner will also receive an expense paid trip to the April 2012 Annual Convention to receive the award. The convention will be held at the Long Beach Convention Center in Long Beach, California.

Requirements:

  1. Minimum of three years’ full-time teaching experience at any level K-12.
  2. Teaching at least one unit per year on natural resources. Natural resources are defined as Earth materials used by civilization past and present such as:
    1. Organic materials such as petroleum, natural gas, coal and oil shale.
    2. Inorganic substances found in the Earth such as mineral ores, building stone and aggregate.
    3. Energy resources from the Earth such as geothermal energy
  3. Teaching should include the scientific study of these resources, their origin, discovery, extraction and historic and present use. It should also include the preservation of the environment, reclamation, the conservation of resources, and the use of earth science knowledge in decision making.
  4. Entries will include the teacher's philosophy and methods of the teaching of natural resources (both content and pedagogy), a description of the unit and two letters of recommendation -- one from a colleague and one from an administrator.
  5. Unit will be evaluated on depth and breadth of concepts (resource origin, discovery, processing, usage and reclamation), creativity of presentation and balanced treatment of information regarding societal need and environmental issues. Please include the length of the unit.

Entry Guidelines:

All documents must be provided and signatures are required. Single or double-spaced lines on one side only of typed, ink jet, or laser quality printing required. All decisions of the judging panels are final.

Please note the checklist below:

Do not submit multimedia such as videotapes, computer disks, photos, photo albums, or posters unless requested later.

Important Notice:

All entries must be postmarked no later than November 1st. Express mail or parcel service will be accepted if posted by deadline. Facsimile and other electronic entry forms will not be accepted. Membership in AAPG is not required for entry.

Important Deadline Information:

AAPG society affiliates must provide their candidates directly to their AAPG Section. Societies must contact their AAPG Section for their respective submittal deadline.

Teachers may apply directly to their local AAPG affiliated society or if they do not know their local society should submit their entries to Tulsa by November 1st where they will be forwarded to the appropriate society for their nomination process. Local deadlines vary. Entries received too late for the current contest will be submitted for the following contest.

Submittal deadline of the Sections’ winning entries to Tulsa is November 1.