2012 Medal Winners | francais

PRESS RELEASE / FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

The 2012 CAP Award for Excellence in Teaching High School/CEGEP Physics (British Columbia and Yukon)

is awarded to

Mike Hengeveld

winner quote

The Canadian Association of Physicists (CAP) is pleased to announce that the 2012 CAP Award for Excellence in Teaching High School/CEGEP Physics (British Columbia and Yukon) is awarded to Mike Hengeveld, Templeton Secondary School, in recognition of for his teaching excellence in physics, particularly at the junior level. He initiated and still organizers the Junior Physics and Engineering Competition (JPEC), a physics contest for students in grades 8-10. By acting on a need he saw for a physics outreach event that engaged younger high school students, he has encouraged many young people to continue studying physics in high school on to the university level.. announcement

Mr. Mike Hengeveld, Templeton Secondary School (Vancouver, BC) for his numerous efforts, both inside and outside of the classroom, to share his enthusiasm for physics with students of all ages. Mike has been a physics teacher in the Vancouver School District for over 10 years, culminating with becoming the Science Department Head at Templeton Secondary School in 2009. Throughout his teaching career Mike has proven to be a passionate, innovative and patient teacher. Many of his past students credit him with not only making physics understandable, but inspiring their desire to pursue a career in the sciences. He routinely goes above and beyond his duties, spending countless hours outside of class interacting with students and making his lessons more relevant to every day life. Nowhere is this more evident than in his spearheading the creation of the JPEC (Junior Physics & Engineering Competition) which has been running very successfully at UBC on an annual basis since 2005. This innovative competition challenges teams of students in grades 8-10 to design and pre-build an apparatus and then compete against as many as 35 other teams from area high schools. Mike's other accomplishments include organizing student-presented science shows at elementary schools, contributing to education-related outreach activities at TRIUMF and being an outspoken advocate for increasing the funding of science education at the high school level. Due to his tireless commitment to all of these endeavors, Mike is a truly deserving recipient of the CAP Award for Excellence in Teaching High School/CEGEP Physics. nominator citation

medal description

The Canadian Association of Physicists, founded in 1945, is a professional association representing over 1600 individual physicists and physics students in Canada, the U.S. and overseas, as well as a number of Corporate, Institutional, and Departmental Members. In addition to its learned activities, the CAP also undertakes a number of activities intended to encourage students to pursue a career in physics. cap description

joint description

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For more information, please contact: Canadian Association of Physicists Tel: (613) 562-5614 Fax: (613) 562-5615 E-mail: cap@uottawa.ca