Congratulations! David Jones

OHAUS Corporation is pleased to announce David Jones, Chemistry teacher at Big Sky High School in Missoula, MT, as the 2009 Gustav Ohaus Award recipient for Innovations in Science Teaching.

Mr. Jones’ OHAUS award-winning educational innovation involved the implementation of Inquiry-Based Science Education at Big Sky High School and the Missoula County Public Schools. This project, entitled “Transition to Inquiry,” upholds a primary goal of reformatting the entire required freshman and sophomore science classes to the inquiry-based delivery model.

While lecture may be used to explain a specific procedure or establish terminology, Mr. Jones focuses on students revealing their knowledge and problem solving skills through guided investigation that includes scientific measurement, data collection and inter-student discussion.

The result of Mr. Jones’ innovative science teaching endeavor, through his collaboration of vested chemistry professionals, is a curriculum that has spread into the entire science department at Big Sky High School. It has been shown that this curriculum improves students’ thinking skills and fits into the National Science Education Content Standards and AAAS Benchmarks for Scientific Literacy.

Mr. Jones received a $1500 cash prize, round trip air fare and hotel accommodations to the NSTA National Conference in New Orleans and OHAUS balances valued at $1000 for his school.

Gustav Award Info