2013 California State Science Fair
Science Fair Teacher of the Year — Senior Division

[CSSF stripe]

The award citation at the Awards Ceremony reads:

This teacher has been sending students to the California State Science Fair since 1999, totaling 85 student competitors in that time. Our winner’s devotion to student research is apparent, noted not only by enlisting mentors and advising students, but also by challenging them work together in research capacities.

This year’s Senior Division California State Science Fair Teacher of the Year was inspired by a junior high school teacher long ago, and has always aimed to become a science teacher who emulates the same feelings inspired by said teacher. After 30 years of teaching science, our winner hopes that students see a teacher who is passionate about their current pursuits and is still having fun while doing them.

Our Science Fair Teacher of the Year makes science not just another course to check off a list, but in the words of students, “incorporates many real-world applications to concepts in the classroom, allowing us to perceive our daily experiences through the lens of science.”

This teacher explains the importance of communicating and sharing findings from scientific research with others, teaching students to appreciate and understand current scientific breakthroughs, as well as communicating their own findings in the halls of their school, oftentimes subtly encouraging students to participate in the science fair. Other times, this teacher will spot an aptitude for science in students, then cultivates and mentors them. In the past, our winner’s vision of students’ potential has led to student projects and subsequent successes, which have followed them even into their medical school interviews!

Please join me in congratulating our Senior Division Teacher of the Year — from Woodbridge High School in Irvine, Orange County — Mike Antrim!

[photo of Mike Antrim]

Mike Antrim was named as advisor on the following projects this year: S0311, S0317, S0416, S0609, S0623, S0922, and S1119.

[CSSF stripe]
California State Science Fair / 2013 / Science Fair Teacher of the Year — Senior Division / CalifSF@usc.edu