A Lamar University professor is one of 10 Texas professors to be honored by the Minnie Stevens Piper Foundation as a 2011 Piper Professor.
The award is given annually to 10 professors for superior teaching at the college level, in the State of Texas.
James Westgate, university professor of earth and space sciences, is the 12th Lamar faculty member to receive the honor since the program began in 1958.
Lamar officials announced the award earlier today, at a news conference in the Geology Building, where Westgate has taught, conducted laboratories and maintained offices since he joined the faculty in 1989.
President James Simmons presented him with the $5,000 honorarium, certificate of merit and gold commemorative pin that accompany the honor.
"It is a great honor to receive the Piper Professor Award," Westgate said. "I think one of the most significant aspects of being given the award is that it acknowledges my philosophy about the importance of students learning through doing, whether that means excavating 40 million-year-old fossils in the Utah desert, or canoeing through Neches River cypress swamps. Science is a verb, because it is a process, and it should be taught that way, and not as a list of vocabulary words. I thank several former students for their letters of support of my teaching methods. The main message we give to more than 200 Southeast Texas science teachers each year when we train them in new JASON Project activities is that students learn best when they are actively doing lab activities through which they discover scientific principles.
"The other great thing about earning the Piper Professor Award is that it acknowledges the impact and significance of programs like the JASON Project and the Teaching Environmental Science Institute, now gearing up for its 16th summer," said Westgate. "Just as the best scientific research today happens through collaborative efforts, the same applies to science education – it works best as a team effort. I think the Piper Professor Award is really a recognition of the successes of the teams I work with throughout the year."
Westgate is the first Lamar University faculty member to be honored as a Piper Professor since 2004, when the foundation recognized Jean Andrews, university professor of deaf studies and deaf education. Hsing-wei Chu, university professor of industrial engineering, became a Piper Professor in 2002. Ralph Wooster, now distinguished professor emeritus of history, was Lamar's first Piper Professor, earning honors in 1964. Other Piper Professors from Lamar have been William Matthews, geology, 1966; Roy Biser Jr., physics, 1972; Lloyd Cherry, Engineering, 1977; Mary Katherine Bell, mathematics, 1978; Russell Long, biology, 1979; Eugene Martinez, engineering, 1980; JoAnn Stiles, history, 1992; and Joseph Pizzo Jr., physics, 1995.
