ARCHIVED—Recipient Bios

Year: 2000 – Province: Alberta

Certificate of Achievement Recipients

Vasile Bratu

School: Jasper Place High School, Stratford Campus
8950-163 Street
Edmonton, Alberta  T5R 2P2

Principal: Cheryl Belyea
School Telephone: 780-484-3381
School Fax: 780-489-2972
School Website: jp.epsb.net
Grades/Subjects Taught: French, physics, science, mathematics

Teaching Approach:

• Hands-on learning through laboratory investigations is the best way to learn physics.
• There is only so much that can be learned inside one classroom; find other learning environments whenever possible.
• Give students an opportunity to identify their weaknesses and time to gain mastery of them.

Outstanding Achievements:

Created an outstanding physics program in a small school with no previous physics department and a limited budget. When the school amalgamated with Jasper Park High School, Mr. Bratu continued to teach all levels of physics along with four courses in French:

• most student learning is through laboratory investigations, effective questioning techniques and problem solving; lectures simply summarize the lesson's conclusions
• physics students achieved a 100 per cent pass rate in June 2000, with 31.8 per cent scoring 80 per cent or higher
• number of students taking grade 12 physics increases every year
• students voluntarily participate in one or more of three national physics competitions.

Extended physics opportunities in 1999 with institution of the International Baccalaureate program. Student participation increases every year, and achievement is above world average (5.40 out of seven compared to 4.75 out of seven).

Was the first teacher in Alberta to teach physics in French.

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