Science Alum Bruce Wellman Receives the 2009 Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching
Bruce Wellman, an alumnus of Penn State University ('91 B.S. Science), has been selected by President Obama to receive the prestigious 2009 Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching. The annual award, one of the nation's highest honors for teachers, is given to the best pre-college-level science and mathematics teachers from across the country.
Two winners from each state are selected by a panel of distinguished scientists, mathematicians, and educators following an initial selection process at the state level. Winners of the Presidential honor receive a monetary award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to be used at their discretion.
A resident of Lawrence, Kansas, Wellman teaches classes in aerospace and engineering chemistry at Olathe Northwest High School. The class covers traditional high-school chemistry with an additional emphasis on materials science, specifically metals and polymers. Wellman will be among 103 teachers from around the country who will receive their awards in Washington, D.C. later this year.
Wellman's career in education spans over 17 years. He began teaching in Georgetown, Delaware at Sussex Central High School in 1993. He later taught at Baldwin Park High School in Baldwin, California from 1994 to 1996. From 1999 to 2004, Wellman was an international development worker in the Comoro Islands in East Africa. While there, he taught English at the French-speaking public school and also provided technical computer support and data analysis for the regional education office.
Wellman said he has learned the importance of exploring new technology and teaching methods and of being able to adopt such technologies in his own classroom. He also said that he would love to see the establishment of a national cooperative of science and math educators dedicated to the creation and maintenance of robust, formative assessment tools that provide better feedback to students and educators.
"Such an open-source system would allow science teachers to select the sequence of mutually developed instructional objectives, and the repository would generate multiple assessment tools that could be administered via the specific technology available to that educator," he explained. "We need such a system to empower teachers with the tools to assess better what the students are actually learning. Such tools also would free up the educator's time to be a better instructional designer who uses data from student performance to guide future instruction." Wellman also explained that the community of science educators needs a better way to determine which instructional practices provide the best return on learning.
Wellman's advice for future educators is to emphasize collaboration as part of the professional existence in teaching. "My students have benefited greatly from the ideas and resources I have gleaned from countless colleagues across the country," Wellman said.
CONTACTS
Jason Ramesar: 814-863-3705, jmr293@psu.edu
Bruce Wellman: 785-830-8681, bwellmanonw@olatheschools.com