Fellow Profiles

Biography

Christine Donovan is an Earth science teacher from Desert View High School in Tucson, Arizona. Christine Donovan has been a high school science teacher for 21 years, all in Tucson's Sunnyside Unified School District #12. In her Desert View HS classroom, a poster presentation from her most recent research is prominently displayed on the wall, because, she says, "If I expect my students to do science, I have the same expectation for myself." So for as long as she has been teaching, she has been leading her students by example. Her research experiences have taken her from Barrow, Alaska, within the Artic Circle, to the depths of the Atlantic Ocean at George's Banks off the coast of Maine. From each experience Ms. Donovan has brought back to her students a better idea of what doing and teaching science is all about.

She put that experience to work again in 2002, when she was asked to lead an overhaul of her district's science curriculum. That same year, Chris served on the State Department of Education's committee to reform Arizona's K-12 science standards. After two years of work, her district had adopted a research-supported, inquiry-based, sequenced science curriculum based on the newly revised state science standards.

Christine Donovan is the recipient of numerous awards for her teaching, including the 2005 Teacher of the Year Award from the National Association of Geosciences Teachers. Chris earned her Bachelor's Degree in sociology from Ithaca College and a Master of Arts in Teaching from Antioch College in Ohio.