The Winifred Curtis Award for Science Educators is an initiative of the Science Teachers' Association of Tasmania (STAT) and is sponsored by Faculty of Science, Engineering & Technology. It is now in its sixth year and calls for nominations from science educators in Tasmania, who demonstrate a longstanding commitment to science education, in a manner that honours the memory of Winifred Curtis.
Dr Winifred Curtis was a truly remarkable Tasmanian, and author of the five volumes of The Student’s Flora of Tasmania (published 1956 -1994). Having migrated from the UK in 1939, Dr Curtis took up a position with the Dept. of Botany at UTAS in Hobart. As well as teaching and inspiring whole generations of students, Dr Curtis was also instrumental in establishing the present Tasmanian Herbarium in 1977. Such was her passion for Tasmanian plants that, thirty years after retirement she was still working on the final volumes of her botanical guide.
Nominees for the Winifred Curtis Award can be classroom teachers or science education officers, in short, any person who helps to instil a passion for science in our youth.
Applications close in March each year. The Award Medal plus $500 is presented at CONSTAT, the annual conference of the Science Teachers Association of Tasmania.
For more details and an application form, contact STAT Awards Co-ordinator Ann Burke, email: aburke@internode.on.net or visit the Science Teachers Assocation of Tasmania website
Past winners of the Winifred Curtis Award have included:
2012 – Margaret Hosford, Tasmanian Science Talent Search
2011 – Jill Reade, Science Teachers’ Association of Tasmania
2010 - Jeannie-Marie LeRoi, University of Tasmania
2009 - Martin George, Launceston Planetarium; Claire Blichfeldt, Ogilvie High School
2008 - William Briginshaw, Riverside High School
2007 - Pam Elliott, Marine Discovery Centre