The Nominations for the 2007-2008 Science Education Advocate Award
are open and due January 18, 2008
Nature of the Science Education Advocate Award
Initiated with support from the Boeing Company, the Science Education Advocate Award recipients will each receive $5,000 and a commemorative award recognizing the recipient’s advocacy efforts for science education reform in Washington. Although recipients can be recognized for either individual or group advocacy efforts, the $5,000 award will be designated by the recipients to an organization or institution for use in its science education efforts.
Recipients will be recognized in a ceremony among local or state community business leaders. The recipients will also be recognized on a Science Education Advocate Awards section of the LASER website, and this Awards page will be structured to highlight the interconnectedness of the science education and advocacy efforts of the award recipients. Further, recipients' professional organizations will be notified of the award and encouraged to recognize the recipient at a conference and/or in the professional organization newsletter, magazine, or webpage. Recipients’ names will be engraved on a plaque for permanent display at the Pacific Science Center.
Advocacy for science education is recongized by actions in several arenas. Examples included the following:
- Promoting the importance of science education among the general public
- Seeking out new and more diverse participants and investors in science education
- Enabling and influencing others to act in the interests of science education and its reform
- Making enhancements to science education by efforts at local, regional and state level in Washington
Each year, Washington State LASER will present:
- A minimum of two awards to individuals and at least one to an organization or project.
- At least two awards to individuals or organizations whose primary function is not related to science education (such as legislators, producers/leads of public access shows, journalists, school board members who are not professional educators).
- At least one award for advocacy for science education outside formal K-12 education.
These parameters may vary each year depending upon the quality of applications received. Awards may recognize long-term efforts or major one-time contributions (e.g. extraordinary efforts toward particular legislation, extraordinary public awareness through a published report). A recipient may not receive the Science Education Advocate Award again for at least five years.