Jan. 12, 2007
Contact: Rita Mitchell, University Relations
Gibson named TSTA Distinguished Educator of the Year
MARTIN, Tenn. – Dr. Michael Gibson, University of Tennessee at Martin professor of geology, recently was named Distinguished Educator of the Year for 2006 by the Tennessee Science Teachers Association.
Gibson, an overall award winner, joins four other award recipients designated as Distinguished Science teachers at the elementary, middle, secondary and higher education divisions.
They were chosen from hundreds of science teachers across Tennessee as outstanding and exemplary teachers in the discipline. They have demonstrated a positive impact on the lives of their students by mastering their teaching skills.
Gibson’s award is his second from TSTA, having been named Distinguished Science Teacher for 2003 in the higher education division.
Gibson received a B.S. degree from the College of William and Mary in 1979, a master’s degree from Auburn University in 1983 and a doctorate from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville in 1988. He has been a UT Martin professor in the Department of Geology, Geography and Physics since 1988. Previously, he was a graduate teaching assistant in the Department of Geological Sciences at UT Knoxville. He also served as an instructor in the Department of Geology at Auburn.
“My teaching interests are directed primarily toward two groups: university-level students and K-12 teachers, but I have recently expanded to include high school students directly,” said Gibson. “I consider myself a geologist/paleontologist and focus my courses on field experiences. Students better grasp concepts and develop stronger self-motivation to learn when they are part of the learning process itself.
“I prefer to use real geologic situations and settings for my students to study. I like them to work on a current project that I have whenever possible,” Gibson said. “I also allow students to pursue their own interests. This approach has been successful for me at UT Martin because the small size of our program allows me to develop a personal relationship with each student. I can work closely with a student to maximize his/her classroom and field experiences to both fill in weak areas and better hone strengths.”
Gibson also uses his students as undergraduate collaborators for research and now has student-participation projects in Tennessee, Alabama, Japan, Mexico and Belize.
Gibson considers the K-12 teaching community the foundation for earth stewardship and provides teachers with methods to incorporate geology in their curricula to demonstrate the relevance of geology. “I devote a significant portion of my educational efforts to help teachers become geology conscious,” Gibson said.
Since 1990, Gibson has worked as a higher education adviser to the earth science teachers in the state, helping to increase the number of earth science certifications in the state and increase the number of geology courses taught in high schools from four in 1990 to 22 in 2000.
“Geology is an applied science that relies on learning by practicing and combines the principles of the other sciences, along with other disciplines – mathematics, history, art, literature – to produce the actual working earth,” said Gibson. “Geology is the ultimate history, thus I consider myself a historian of the distant past.”
Gibson’s current research projects include the following: paleoecology, depositional environments and biotic interactions of Devonian strata of West Tennessee; Cretaceous Coon Creek Formation; Pennsylvanian Morris Shale in Alabama; plant fossils from the Eocene clay deposits of West Tennessee, History of Tennessee Geology and Earth Science Education in Tennessee; and Geology of Belize, Central America.
Other recognitions of Gibson’s efforts through the years include the Tennessee Earth Science Teaching Ptero Award in 2001. He was a UT Martin Featured Scholar and received the Hal and Alma Reagan Faculty Leave Award in 1998; and was selected for the Cunningham Outstanding Teacher Scholar Award in 1995-96. Gibson received the UT Knoxville Department of Geology Incentive Award in 1988; UT Knoxville Chancellor's Citation for Extraordinary Professional Promise in 1987; the University of Tennessee, Oak Ridge National Lab Science Alliance “Super” Research Fellowship for Academic Excellence in 1985-1986; and the Cardin Fellowship Award for Academic Excellence in 1984-1985.
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