Owen R. Hopkins Outstanding Earth Science Teacher Award
2025 Deadline for Nominations is January 15, 2025
Past Recipients of the Owen R. Hopkins Outstanding Earth Science Teacher Award (click here)
In 2011, the GCAGS Board of Directors unanimously approved renaming the former “Outstanding Teacher Award” in honor of the late Owen R. Hopkins for his tremendous and invaluable efforts in initiating, developing, and conducting Earth science outreach programs, which include “Maps in Schools”, “Bones in Schools”, and “Boulders in Schools”. The Owen R. Hopkins Outstanding Earth Science Teacher Award carries a monetary award of $1,500 for personal use by the winning teacher and $500 for use for educational purposes under the teacher’s supervision. Also included is an expense-paid trip for the teacher to the GCAGS Annual Convention to receive the award.
The purpose of the Hopkins Award is two-fold: (1) to recognize an outstanding K-12 teacher in the Gulf Coast area and (2) to provide a GCAGS nominee for the American Association of Petroleum Geologists Foundation’s $5,000 Award for Excellence in the Teaching of Natural Resources in the Earth Sciences. Note that because AAPG’s main focus is energy resources, nominees for the AAPG teacher award who include subjects in that area will receive special consideration by AAPG.
Hopkins Award Requirements
1. The nominee must have a minimum of three years of full-time U.S. teaching experience at any K-12 level.
2. The nominee must be teaching at least one unit per year on natural resources. Natural resources are defined as Earth materials used by civilizations past and present, such as:
a. Organic materials such as oil, natural gas, coal and oil shale.
b. Other energy resources from the Earth, such as geothermal energy.
c. Inorganic substances found in the Earth, such as mineral ores, building stone, and aggregate.
3. The nominee’s teaching should include the scientific study of these resources, their origin, discovery, extraction, and historical and present use. It should also include the preservation of the environment, reclamation, the conservation of resources, and the application of Earth science in decision making.
4. The teaching unit will be evaluated on depth and breadth of concepts, creativity of presentation, and balanced treatment of information regarding societal need and environmental issues. Please include the length of the unit.
Required Nomination Materials
1. Entrant Information Cover Page
2. Teacher’s philosophy and methods of the teaching of natural resources (2 pages).
3. Description of the teaching unit, including unit objectives (2 pages).
4. Letter of recommendation from a teaching colleague.
5. Letter of recommendation from a school administrator.
All of the required nomination materials must be submitted by the nominating society to the GCAGS Awards & Nominations Chair by January 15, 2025 in order to be considered for the Owen R. Hopkins Award. The Hopkins awardee for a given year will then be nominated by GCAGS as an entrant in the AAPG competition for its Excellence in Teaching Award.
Nominations not selected for the Hopkins Award in any given year will be retained for future consideration in the next year and need not be resubmitted; however, an update of the required nomination materials may be recommended. Nominations will be held for consideration for up to three years.
Awards Committee
Email: awards@gcags.org
Entrant Information Cover Page