2013 Medal Winners | francais

PRESS RELEASE / FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

The 2013 CAP Award for Excellence in Teaching High School/CEGEP Physics (British Columbia and Yukon)

is awarded to

Bruce Gowe

"Receiving this award on the recommendation of fellow physicists for the teaching of a subject I love to eager students is truly an honour. It is humbling to be chosen to represent the Physics teachers of Canada who enjoy a passion for teaching Physics both in and outside of the classroom." winner citation

The Canadian Association of Physicists (CAP) is pleased to announce that the 2013 CAP Award for Excellence in Teaching High School/CEGEP Physics (British Columbia and Yukon) is awarded to Bruce Gowe, Penticton Secondary School, in recognition of for his inspiration to his students, his commitment to make his classroom an exciting place and his impact on the current generation of young physics students at Penticton High. Under Bruce's leadership, the fraction of students taking Physics has become anomalously high, and the Penticton High School Physics Olympics Team has placed first in BC more often than any other team in the past two decades. Among the first generation of high school teachers to incorporate “clickers”, he makes use of technologies in the classroom and laboratory to engage students in real-life physics. announcement

Mr. Bruce Gowe is a passionate and dedicated physics teacher. He has been a pioneer in developing and promoting learning technologies and innovative techniques in his teaching. He’s an experimental physicist at heart and uses technologies in the classroom and laboratory to engage students in real-life physics experiments and data analysis. He was among the early generation of high school teachers to incorporate “clickers” in the classroom to facilitate discussions. He has mentored and shared his successful teaching methods with other teachers. He was the leader behind the volunteer efforts at Penticton High to design and construct the school’s telescope/observatory. For almost two decades, he’s been the teacher, coach and mentor for the Penticton High School Team at the British Columbia Physics Olympics, working tirelessly with his students, developing their skills and coaching them to more first place finishes than any other team.

But most important is his impact on the current generation of young physics students: his reputation and passion for teaching physics inspires an incredible number of students to take physics in high school and then to pursue post-secondary studies in physics. Many of his former students fondly remember him as their most inspiring teacher and cite him as the reason they continued studies in 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