2012 California State Science Fair
Science Fair Teacher of the Year — Senior Division

The award citation at the Awards Ceremony reads:

This year’s Senior Division Science Fair Teacher of the Year jump started a career in education with a bang – literally! With the help of a colleague, our recipient has created an afterschool program which resulted in not only building and studying small rockets, but also sending a weather balloon into space – a feat that captured the interests of student scientists. In fact, it’s not only students, but the entire community that has been touched by this teacher’s efforts and enthusiasm. This individual has coordinated a family Star-Gazing Night for the community, many of whom had never before had the chance to look through a telescope. Support for the science fair and its participants include working with the fourth grade class to sell popcorn, which raised funds to help send the high school students here to the state competition. This may sound ordinary to some science fair supporters, but when you consider that this school and its community have not had a science fair in over ten years, the impact is truly astounding.

The school principal credits this instructor with revitalizing the science program. One student remarks that this teacher has “shown us that science can be fun,” and adds that at the beginning of the year only one student said he enjoyed science but after a recent polling of the class, all students identified science as their favorite class. When asked about the student nomination for this award, our recipient remarked, “I think that the students had more fun doing this than any other project they’ve done before. I pushed them hard, but we had fun.”

Please join me in congratulating our Senior Division Teacher of the Year — from Anderson Valley High School in Boonville in Mendocino County — Jacob Bagnell!

Jacob Bagnell was named as advisor on the following projects this year: J1204 and S0805.