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Atwater

University of Georgia professor of science education Mary M. Atwater has been named to serve on the Science Standards Committee of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards.

The committee, which consists of up to a dozen members, evaluates the existing NBPTS standards for middle and high school science education to determine whether they represent accomplished teaching in the field and what, if any, revision is warranted.

Most of the committee’s members are classroom teachers but it also includes educators with expertise in the teaching field, such as district and state staff developers, curriculum specialists, and college and university professors of education.

The committee will meet for several weekend days in the fall in Washington, D.C. In addition, members are scheduled to take part in online discussion boards and have face-to-face meetings depending on the complexity of changes to the standards. The committee will then respond to public comments on the committee’s draft prior to final approval by the NBPTS Board of Directors.

Atwater, who was named an inaugural class Fellow of the American Educational Research Association in 2009, served as an original member of the NBPTS’s Early Adolescence/Science Standards Committee from 1991-98.

She received the Legendary Award from the Association of Multicultural Science Education for her work in adding to the depth of literature in the field by presenting research nationally and internationally, and spearheading organizations that promote multicultural science education.

An 8th grade science textbook written by Atwater titled, Using Energy, was heralded around the world as the inspiration and guide for a 14-year-old African boy’s quest to build a windmill that provided electricity for his family and village for the first time, after a book was published in 2009 about his experience.

Atwater was named one of 1999’s African-American Phenomenal Women by the African-American Professional Women of the Athens Area and was named to the National Technical Association’s Academy of Top Minority Women in Science and Engineering in 1998 and 1997. She was named a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1995.

Atwater, who joined the UGA faculty in 1987, was the first African-American female to earn a doctorate in science education at North Carolina State University in 1980 and first African-American female department head at the University of Georgia.