Award Winners
Meet the 2009 Recipients of the CSTA Awards . . .
Margaret Nicholson Distinguished Service Award:
Bill Ritz
William Ritz, retired professor of science education at California
State University, Long Beach, has been named the recipient
of the 2009 Margaret Nicholson Distinguished Service Award
by the CSTA board of directors. Among his many contributions
to science education in California, Dr. Ritz founded the science
education department at CSULB, and literally thousands of
prospective and practicing science teachers have benefitted
from his work in making the science education department the
largest in the state. Dr. Ritz also started the Head Start
on Science project at CSULB, which seeks to encourage children’s
sense of wonder beginning at a young age. He has been active
at the national level, serving as president of the Association
for the Education of Teachers in Science, regional director
and board member of the National Science Teachers Association,
and as national conference chair of the NSTA national conference
in Anaheim in 2006.
CSTA Future Science Teacher Award:
Bernice "Jeanne" Lepowsky
 Bernice
(Jeanne) Lepowsky, a student at California State University,
Long Beach, has been named the recipient of CSTA’s Future
Science Teacher Award. Jeanne is pursuing a single subject
science credential at CSULB after having received a BS in
business and an MS in industrial administration, and after
20 years in business and management. She has taught 4th and
5th graders in a science-oriented after-school program, has
been a teaching assistant at CSULB’s Young Scientist Camp,
and would like to teach middle school science, to help students
see the relevance of science to their lives, in the hope that
they will be more likely to pursue science in high school
and beyond.
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