NSF PR 99-25 - April 16, 1999
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New Teacher Award Honors NSF Program Director
Two teachers have been honored with the first of a
one-of-a-kind award for K-12 science teachers. Don
Berthiaume (Biddeford High School, Biddeford, Me.),
and Pattyanne Corsentino (Place Middle School, Denver,
Colo.) received the Lawrence A. Scadden Outstanding
Teacher Award of the Year for Students With Disabilities
for their work to engage all students -- particularly
those with disabilities -- in learning science, mathematics,
engineering, and technology. The award is named after
Lawrence A. Scadden , the National
Science Foundation's (NSF) senior program director
of the Program for Persons With Disabilities.
Scadden is an internationally renowned scientist who
has specialized in design of technology applications
for people with disabilities. Scadden is blind. This
new award was created in his honor by the Regional
Alliance of Science, Engineering and Mathematics for
Students with Disabilities (RASEM) and by Science
Education for Students With Disabilities (SESD), a
Special Interest Group of the National Science Teachers
Association (NSTA).
Science educators across the nation were informed of
the award last year. A selection committee chose two
finalists in February. Each received a check, certificate
and plaque at the annual meeting of the National Science
Teachers Association meeting in Boston, Mass., on
March 27, 1999. Scadden was the honored guest at the
ceremony.
The inaugural Outstanding Science Teacher of 1999
is Don Berthiaume. Berthiaume received a $1,000 check.
Pattyanne Corsentino is the Meritorious Science Teacher
and received a $500 check.
Berthiaume received NSF's Presidential Award for Excellence
in Mathematics and Science Teaching and the Milken
Family Foundation National Educator Award. He is a
past president of the Maine Science Teachers Association.
Berthiaume works on an NSF-supported Biotechnology
Works! project at the University of Southern Maine,
which has earned a national reputation for providing
both intellectual and personal challenges in a supportive
and safe environment. Berthiaume developed equipment
that allows students with disabilities to be included
successfully in the science laboratory.
At Place Middle School in Denver, Colo., Corsentino
won praise for facilitating access to environmental
science for all students. She has been an exemplary
leader in the South Platte River Club, a major mission
of which is to improve handicap accessibility to the
river for water quality monitoring. For the last three
years, her students have put on Outdoor Adventure
for hundreds of elementary school children who come
to learn about the urban natural environment. Her
current project, Our Place on Cherry Creek, involves
all Denver Public Schools students in environmental
experiences.
Biographical Information on Lawrence
Scadden
Born in California in 1939 and blinded at the age of
five in a household accident, Scadden showed an early
interest in technology when he became active in ham
radio. He received a bachelor's degree in political
science from the University of Redlands, but his love
of science and technology took him into psychology
at the University of the Pacific where he concentrated
on human perception. In 1968, Larry received his master's
degree in experimental psychology and took a position
at the Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco, researching
the application of technology to relieve the problems
of people with visual or auditory impairments. Larry
received his doctorate there in 1971, becoming an
internationally recognized expert. He was appointed
in 1979 as deputy director of a newly created federal
agency (now an office within the Department of Education)
on disability research. He was invited to head NSF's
initiative on persons with disabilities in 1991, and
has done so since.
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