Dr. Rita Hagevik, associate professor at UNC Pembroke, has been named the recipient of the 2018 Distinguished Teaching Award in STEM Education.

Dr. Hagevik will be presented with the award in October during the Bridging the Gap: Uniting North Carolina K-16 STEM Education Conference organized by the North Carolina Association for Biomedical Research.  

The award is designed to recognize educators at the elementary, middle and high school levels, and higher education faculty who have made extraordinary contributions to the field of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education.

Dr. Hagevik joined the biology department at UNCP in 2011. She also serves as director of Graduate Programs in Science Education. She will formally receive the award, which includes a monetary sum, at this year’s Bridging the Gap conference in October. 

Dr. Hagevik has spent 10 years as a science educator at the university level and twelve years as a secondary science teacher in the public schools of North Carolina. She holds a BS degree in Biology, a master’s degree in Science Education, and a Ph.D. in Science Education and in Forestry. Her graduate work was at N.C. State University.

Her teaching and scholarship reflect her interests in environmental education, scientific inquiry, nature of science, geospatial technologies, and teacher professional development. She is passionate about teachers participating in and creating their own scientific knowledge through the use of technology tools such as geospatial technologies.

Her scholarship serves as a means of investigating how to prepare and support teachers to use these tools to teach the next environmentally and scientifically literate society.

The conference will be held at N.C. State University October 23-24. 

Article from UNCP News