York alumna Danielle Gauci (BEd ’00), a science teacher at Northern Secondary School in Toronto, is the winner of a $5,000 BIOTECanada-Biogen Idec Teaching Excellence Award.
Part of the fourth annual National Biotechnology Week, the award program is dedicated to promoting and recognizing teaching of biotechnology at the secondary school level in Canada. It includes three annual cash awards, one for $5,000 and two for $2,500 each, to be divided equally between the winning teacher and his/her school.
“Throughout her seven years of teaching, Danielle has gone above and beyond to bring biotech into Northern’s classrooms, and show students how biotechnology can be discovered in the home through safe and fun experiments,” said award program organizers in a media release Sept. 26.
“Danielle organizes and delivers three biotech courses in the school while maintaining the fully equipped biotechnology lab, and encourages her students to participate in a number of extracurricular activities such as essay contests and science fairs.
“She is also responsible for overseeing the school’s participants in the Sanofi-Aventis BioTalent Challenge, working with students on her own time to facilitate the success of Northern’s students in the competitions. Danielle also encourages her colleagues to learn more about biotech through workshops, working with her colleagues to integrate biotechnology into science curriculum at the school.”
For more on the teaching excellence award, visit www.biotech.ca.