2009-2010
News Release
REF NO.: 220
SUBJECT: Three GEO board members with ties to Memorial University win national awards
DATE: June 9, 2010
Three members of the GEO Centre board of directors with connections to Memorial University received national awards this spring.
Dr. Alice Collins, Faculty of Education and GEO chairperson, received the Distinguished Service Award from the Canadian Society for the Study of Education (CSSE) in Montreal on May 31.
Two other GEO members also received recent national accolades.
Dr. Edward Roberts, former Lieutenant Governor of Newfoundland and Labrador, was awarded the Order of Canada this April. Dr. Roberts received an honorary doctor of laws from Memorial in May 2003 and served as chair of the Board of Regents from 1997-2002.
Dr. Paul Johnson, GEO Centre founder/owner and honorary doctor of laws recipient (1994), received a Canadian Museum Association Award of Outstanding Achievement, in recognition of his exceptional museum projects and his abiding contributions to the Canadian heritage sector.
In August 2007 a new GEO board of directors was formed to include six members from Memorial and five members from the Johnson Family Foundation. Their mission was to further expand the centre’s unique, hands-on and tactile museum experience.
In addition to their numerous exhibits, GEO also boasts a number of curriculum-based education programs for primary/elementary through to high school students in the K-12 system.
“What GEO focuses on is a full experience,” said Dr. Collins, the former dean and longtime Faculty of Education member. “We like people to come and be able to touch, hear and smell the exhibit. It’s not a hands-off centre. People really experience the full palate of what the exhibits have to offer, from sound to smell to feeling the rock wall, and beyond. The thing that we hear back from people who visit is that they love being there in the middle of it all.”
Dr. Collins said the board is hoping to expand the education programs beyond their present offerings, and is working with the current supervisor of education programs (Andrea van Nostrand, BA, Memorial, 1992) to develop the current programs for distance education, which will be available province-wide.
REF NO.: 220
SUBJECT: Three GEO board members with ties to Memorial University win national awards
DATE: June 9, 2010
Three members of the GEO Centre board of directors with connections to Memorial University received national awards this spring.
Dr. Alice Collins, Faculty of Education and GEO chairperson, received the Distinguished Service Award from the Canadian Society for the Study of Education (CSSE) in Montreal on May 31.
Two other GEO members also received recent national accolades.
Dr. Edward Roberts, former Lieutenant Governor of Newfoundland and Labrador, was awarded the Order of Canada this April. Dr. Roberts received an honorary doctor of laws from Memorial in May 2003 and served as chair of the Board of Regents from 1997-2002.
Dr. Paul Johnson, GEO Centre founder/owner and honorary doctor of laws recipient (1994), received a Canadian Museum Association Award of Outstanding Achievement, in recognition of his exceptional museum projects and his abiding contributions to the Canadian heritage sector.
In August 2007 a new GEO board of directors was formed to include six members from Memorial and five members from the Johnson Family Foundation. Their mission was to further expand the centre’s unique, hands-on and tactile museum experience.
In addition to their numerous exhibits, GEO also boasts a number of curriculum-based education programs for primary/elementary through to high school students in the K-12 system.
“What GEO focuses on is a full experience,” said Dr. Collins, the former dean and longtime Faculty of Education member. “We like people to come and be able to touch, hear and smell the exhibit. It’s not a hands-off centre. People really experience the full palate of what the exhibits have to offer, from sound to smell to feeling the rock wall, and beyond. The thing that we hear back from people who visit is that they love being there in the middle of it all.”
Dr. Collins said the board is hoping to expand the education programs beyond their present offerings, and is working with the current supervisor of education programs (Andrea van Nostrand, BA, Memorial, 1992) to develop the current programs for distance education, which will be available province-wide.
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