2020 Medal Winners | francais

The 2020 CAP Award for Excellence in Teaching High School/CEGEP Physics (British Columbia and Yukon)

is awarded to

Joseph Muise

"I am honoured to receive this award from CAP, and to have been selected from the great community of physics educators in this part of Canada. I am feeling lucky to work in a school where my excitement for physics is encouraged, and I am grateful for the opportunity to share that passion with my students." winner citation

The Canadian Association of Physicists (CAP) is pleased to announce that the 2020 CAP Award for Excellence in Teaching High School/CEGEP Physics (British Columbia and Yukon) is awarded to Joseph Muise, St. Thomas More Collegiate, in recognition of for his involvement in student-centric activities both in and out of the classroom that engage students in modern physics in the real world and his mentoring of other teachers in the wider physics community for professional development activities. announcement

Joe Muise has been teaching physics at St. Thomas More Collegiate since 2004 and in that time enrolment in Physics 12 has nearly doubled, with a significant increase in the number of female students. Joe strives to make physics interesting and accessible to his students through varied instruction and real-world examples. He manages to push his students to strive for excellence, while keep the classroom tone light and relaxed.

Joe seeks out professional development opportunities to improve his teaching and works to share these opportunities with others. He has attended LIGO�s International Physics and Astronomy Workshop, CERN�s International Teacher Weeks and The European Space Agency�s Robotics & Automation workshop and presented those experiences to fellow teachers at conferences run by the BC Association of Physics Teachers, the NSTA, and the BC Science Teachers Association.

Joe also goes to great lengths to provide opportunities for his students to participate in applied physics activities outside of the classroom. He and a group of his students travelled to Bologna, Italy and became the first Canadians to compete in the European Space Agency�s CanSat competition. He has led two student groups (with a third in currently in preparation) through the Students on the Beamlines program at the Canadian Light Source, where they conducted original research at Canada�s national synchrotron. He has brought many groups to the UBC Physics Olympics, and the Kwantlen Science Challenge. His love of astronomy lead to the formation of a school astronomy club that regularly sees many students out on the school track looking at the night sky.

Earlier this year, Joe was recognized by the National Science Teaching Association as the recipient of the Robert E Yager Exemplary Teaching Award for Canada. He recently joined STEP UP as an ambassador, working to encourage nominator citation

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