2014 Medal Winners | francais

PRESS RELEASE / FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

The 2014 CAP Award for Excellence in Teaching High School/CEGEP Physics (Atlantic)

is awarded to

Stephanie Sajatovich

"It is an honour to have been nominated and surreal to have won this award. I love teaching Physics and I work hard to share that enthusiasm with my students. It’s the highest compliment to be recognized in this way." winner citation

The Canadian Association of Physicists (CAP) is pleased to announce that the 2014 CAP Award for Excellence in Teaching High School/CEGEP Physics (Atlantic) is awarded to Stephanie Sajatovich, Armbrae Academy, in recognition of for her innovative use of technology in the classroom and her cutting-edge teaching methods, which have resulted in the highest enrolment in physics in her school's history. announcement

Stephanie Sajatovich has been teaching Physics, Science, and Math at Armbrae Academy for the past 8 years after stints overseas at international schools in the UK and Hungary. In 2012, Stephanie received one of the Prime Minister's Awards for Teaching Excellence based on the following criteria:

1) digital literacy
2) innovative and exemplary teaching practices
3) student skills development
4) student achievement and participation; and
5) teacher commitment and leadership.

She is an exceptional user of technology, from daily lessons on the Smart Board to experiments hooked up to computers. Stephanie’s classroom is set up such that the students are constantly learning “real world” skills. She believes that science problems should always have a real life application.

In addition to her undergraduate degrees, she has a Masters in Curriculum from Mount St. Vincent University and this summer will complete a second Masters, in Leadership, from Acadia.

Stephanie enhances her students’ experience by taking them to Dalhousie and Saint Mary’s Universities’ Physics departments where they can see experiments that they would not be able to conduct in the regular classroom. She is a facilitator with Armbrae’s Robots East team in the annual competition at Dalhousie.

Stephanie has also participated on Evaluation Committees for CAIS (Canadian Accredited Independent Schools), was the internal co-ordinator for Armbrae’s CAIS evaluation, and is a graduate of the CAIS Leadership Institute. Her curriculum design includes International Baccalaureate and Advanced Placement.

As one student recently commented, “From my one year with Ms Sajatovich alone, I had students from all over my residence at McGill University asking for help in our physics classes…I specifically remember my next-door neighbour asking me why my university physics assignments came to me so easily, and my exact response was ‘I had a fantastic high-school Physics professor’. Ms Sajatovich is an incredible teacher that I will not soon forget.” nominator citation

The CAP Award for Excellence in Teaching High School/CEGEP Physics, which was introduced in 2010, is intended to recognize excellence in teaching physics in Canadian high schools or CEGEPs and to encourage and promote physics at the high school/CEGEP level in Canada. The award is sponsored by the CAP, TRIUMF, Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, Nelson Education, and the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of BC. 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