{"id":82839,"date":"2018-08-06T11:19:04","date_gmt":"2018-08-06T21:19:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=82839"},"modified":"2019-04-04T15:36:37","modified_gmt":"2019-04-05T01:36:37","slug":"uh-alumni-earn-national-education-award","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2018\/08\/06\/uh-alumni-earn-national-education-award\/","title":{"rendered":"UH<\/abbr> alumni earn highest national award for math and science instruction"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading time: <\/span> 2<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>
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Akeyo Garcia<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n
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Masaru Uchino<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n

University of Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> at M\u0101noa College of Education<\/a> alumni Akeyo Garcia<\/strong> and Masaru Uchino<\/strong> have won the Presidential Award of Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching<\/a>, the highest honor bestowed upon K–12<\/abbr> mathematics and science teachers by the U.S.<\/abbr> government.<\/p>\n

Garcia and Uchino were presented with a presidential citation at the nation\u2019s capital, and were each given $10,000 from the National Science Foundation. They were also invited to participate in discussions on STEM<\/abbr> education while in Washington, D.C.<\/abbr><\/p>\n

Akeyo Garcia<\/strong><\/p>\n

Garcia, who has been an early childhood educator for more than 20 years, earned a bachelor of education in elementary education, and a master of education in curriculum studies and early childhood education (ECE<\/abbr>) at the College of Education. She recently served as a pre-kindergarten program director and teacher at Kamalani Academy charter school and will return to ʻEwa Elementary School to launch a pre-kindergarten program.<\/p>\n

She has been honored with the Educator of Excellence in Our Community Award and the K\u014dkua Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> Foundation Earth Action Projects Award. She is also the recipient of more than $50,000 in grants, one of which enabled her to purchase STEM<\/abbr> materials for seven classrooms.<\/p>\n

“Akeyo is an exceptional early childhood educator who provides leadership within and beyond her school,” said ECE<\/abbr> Program Director Robyn Chun<\/strong><\/a>. “A skillful, articulate and master teacher, she brings a passion and deep commitment in all of her endeavors to the young children, families and communities she serves.”<\/p>\n

Masaru Uchino<\/strong><\/p>\n

Uchino, who teaches third grade at Momilani Elementary School, earned his master of education in educational technology from the college\u2019s Department of Learning Design and Technology (LTEC<\/abbr>). Leading his students through innovative science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics projects in and out of the classroom, Uchino infuses hands-on lessons with a deeper sense of meaning and community.<\/p>\n

Uchino is a 2016–17 Milken Educator Award winner<\/a>, a 2015 District Teacher of the Year and was a finalist for LTEC<\/abbr>\u2019s Burniske Award for Outstanding Master\u2019s Project in 2011.<\/p>\n

“While the award is well deserved, it is not surprising to us that Masa\u2019s innovative work is being recognized,” said LTEC<\/abbr> Chair Curtis Ho<\/strong>. “He was a very creative and energetic student in our master\u2019s program, and we are pleased to see one of our graduates continue to apply technology to engage students in meaningful learning.”<\/p>\n

To read more on Garcia and Uchino, read the full story on the College of Education website<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

College of Education alumni Akeyo Garcia and Masaru Uchino received the Presidential Award of Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[679,95,908,630,313,9],"class_list":["post-82839","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-people","tag-alumni-recognition","tag-college-of-education","tag-early-childhood-education","tag-learning-design-and-technology","tag-stem","tag-uh-manoa","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82839","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82839"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82839\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":82843,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82839\/revisions\/82843"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}