Sea Grant receives science education award

The University of Wisconsin Sea Grant Institute has been selected to receive the 1999 “Friend of Science Education” Award from the Wisconsin Society of Science Teachers (WSST).

The award recognizes “outstanding contributions to the support of science teachers and science education” by individuals and groups outside the science education community. In announcing the award, WSST described UW Sea Grant as an “active supporter of science education in Wisconsin for over 30 years.”

The award committee noted three UW Sea Grant efforts in particular: the Global Environmental Change Education Initiative, led by Allen Miller, Assistant Director for Advisory Services; Operation Pathfinder, conducted by James Lubner, Education Specialist; and the Madison JASON Project, coordinated by Mary Lou Reeb, Education Coordinator.

Miller, Lubner, and Reeb will accept the award on behalf of UW Sea Grant at the WSST Convention on April 23 in Lake Geneva, Wis.

Madison JASON is part of the international JASON Project, a high-tech science education program for middle-school students founded by Robert Ballard, discoverer of the wreck of the RMS Titanic. Nearly 80 teachers and 3,000 students in the Madison area participate in the annual program.

The Global Change Environmental Education Initiative conducts workshops for secondary and post-secondary teachers and non-formal educators to produce a more scientifically literate, environmentally aware, and technologically equipped population. Nearly 400 teachers throughout Wisconsin have participated in the one- to three-day workshops.

Operation Pathfinder is a three-credit graduate course taught at UW-Milwaukee to increase awareness and understanding of oceanography, limnology, and coastal processes among elementary and middle school minority teachers and teachers of minority students.