2022 Awardee - Aida Awad, American InterContinental University

Aida Awad has been awarded the 2022 Bob Christman Award by the National Association of Geoscience Teachers.

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Aida Awad was Science Department Chair at Maine East High School in Illinois when she was elected NAGT Councilor in 2008 and also began serving as an Associate Editor for ourJournal of Geoscience Education. Following her term as Councilor, she was elected to serve in the presidential line—the first K-12 instructor to do so in NAGT's history—and she followed that with a term as Secretary/Treasurer. During her twelve years on the Executive Committee, Aida co-led the NAGT review team for the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) and, following their publication, worked to develop strong, collaborative relationships between NAGT, AGI, and NESTA to lead efforts to bring the Earth and space science community together around successful implementation of the new standards. It is no overstatement to say that, without Aida, our community would not be where we are in NGSS implementation.

Aida still volunteers her time for NAGT. She serves on the NAGT Webinar Committee as the co-lead of the NGSS-ESS Implementation program. She has reviewed countless activities in Teach the Earth and helped indicate their alignment with the NGSS. Beyond these formal roles, Aida has been invaluable as a source of feedback in our efforts to grow and support our K-12 educator membership.

Aida Awad has followed a unique path from teaching high school science into higher education and consulting, always learning new strategies and ideas—throughout her journey, she has kept NAGT in the forefront, contributing in profound ways to the organization and our efforts