Biography

Walter Smith is currently Professor of Science Education in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at Texas Tech University and his career has focused on mentoring underrepresented groups, especially women and Native Americans. His accomplishments include serving effectively as perhaps the nation's first male Associate Dean of Women at the University of Kansas; producing COMETS, a widely respected curriculum to encourage girls in fifth through ninth grades to pursue careers in science—over 8,000 copies of this National Science Teaching Association (NSTA) publication are used around the world; COMETS has also received an American Educational Research Association (AERA) award—producing curriculum materials, also published by NSTA, to encourage senior high and undergraduate women in science; producing curriculum for use by Native American students, conducting research in the same area, and leading workshops for over 750 teachers; serving as mentor and advisor to many Native American teachers, including 32 MASTERS science teachers, half of whom are Native American—these mentees have developed programs like TIPS (Teaching in Pueblo Schools) where senior high students from Santa Fe Indian School returned to their home schools as cross-age tutors to teach science from a Native American perspective to younger siblings; and directly impacting graduate and undergraduate minority students. One of his doctoral students, a Cherokee, is President of the Institute of American Indian Art in Santa Fe and 13 have received Presidential Awards for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching. Walter has also received the NSTA Distinguished Service Award for Education.