Bertha Vazquez is director of education for the

Center for Inquiry The Center for Inquiry (CFI) is a US nonprofit organization that works to mitigate belief in pseudoscience and the paranormal, as well as to fight the influence of religion in government. History The Center for Inquiry was established in 199 ...

, director of the

Teacher Institute for Evolutionary Science The Teacher Institute for Evolutionary Science (TIES) is a project of the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science and a program of the Center for Inquiry which provides free workshops and materials to elementary, middle school, and, ...

(TIES), a program of the

and a project of the

Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science The Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science (RDFRS or RDF) is a division of Center for Inquiry (CFI) founded by British biologist Richard Dawkins in 2006 to promote scientific literacy and secularism. Originally a non-profit based in ...

, and a retired

middle school A middle school (also known as intermediate school, junior high school, junior secondary school, or lower secondary school) is an educational stage which exists in some countries, providing education between primary school and secondary school. ...

science teacher at the George Washington Carver Middle School in the

Miami-Dade County Public Schools Miami-Dade County Public Schools (M-DCPS) is a public school district serving Miami-Dade County in the U.S. state of Florida. Founded in 1885, it is the largest school district in Florida and the Southeastern United States, and, , the fourth la ...

. She also manages the educational aspects of Science Saves and Young Skeptics, two other CFI programs. Vazquez was appointed a

Committee for Skeptical Inquiry The Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSI), formerly known as the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP), is a program within the US non-profit organization Center for Inquiry (CFI), which seeks to "prom ...

fellow in 2020, and received the 2023 Friend of Darwin award from the

National Center for Science Education The National Center for Science Education (NCSE) is a not-for-profit membership organization in the United States whose stated mission is to educate the press and the public on the scientific and educational aspects of controversies surrounding t ...

(NCSE).

Early life and education

At age 18, Vazquez read ''

The Selfish Gene ''The Selfish Gene'' is a 1976 book on evolution by the ethologist Richard Dawkins, in which the author builds upon the principal theory of George C. Williams's ''Adaptation and Natural Selection'' (1966). Dawkins uses the term "selfish gene ...

'' and became a self-described fan of

Richard Dawkins Richard Dawkins (born 26 March 1941) is a British evolutionary biologist and author. He is an emeritus fellow of New College, Oxford and was Professor for Public Understanding of Science in the University of Oxford from 1995 to 2008. An ath ...

. She went on to obtain an undergraduate degree in biology from the

University of Miami The University of Miami (UM, UMiami, Miami, U of M, and The U) is a private research university in Coral Gables, Florida. , the university enrolled 19,096 students in 12 colleges and schools across nearly 350 academic majors and programs, incl ...

and a master's in science education from

Florida International University Florida International University (FIU) is a public university, public research university with its main campus in Miami-Dade County. Founded in 1965, the school opened its doors to students in 1972. FIU has grown to become the third-largest uni ...

Career

In 1989, served as an exhibit guide at the

Phillip and Patricia Frost Museum of Science The Phillip and Patricia Frost Museum of Science (formerly known as the Miami Science Museum or Miami Science Museum and Space Transit Planetarium) is a science museum, planetarium, and aquarium located in Miami, Florida, United States. The museum ...

Coconut Grove Coconut Grove, also known colloquially as The Grove, is the oldest continuously inhabited neighborhood of Miami in Miami-Dade County, Florida. The neighborhood is roughly bound by North Prospect Drive to the south, LeJeune Road to the west, S ...

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

. That same year, she began her teaching career in

Albi Albi (; oc, Albi ) is a commune in southern France. It is the prefecture of the Tarn department, on the river Tarn, 85 km northeast of Toulouse. Its inhabitants are called ''Albigensians'' (french: Albigeois, Albigeoise(s), oc, albig� ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

. In 1990, Vazquez began teaching in

. She has taught sixth grade integrated science, seventh grade integrated science, Earth and space science, physical science, and biology. She has also taught French in Miami-Dade County Public Schools. Vazquez's main teaching interest has been in environmental education, and she encouraged her fellow teachers even in non-scientific subjects to incorporate

climate change In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...

education in their curricula. Her efforts were recognized with the Charles C. Bartlett Award from the National Environmental Education Foundation in 2009. Vazquez feels passionate about middle-school students learning about climate change especially as she teaches in Florida where they are "seeing the dramatic impacts of a warming planet". She devotes two weeks a year to climate change, assigning her students to not only learn about it, but to seek out and understand why some people don't believe it is caused by humans. She also worked for the

National Board for Professional Teaching Standards The National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization in the United States. Founded in 1987, NBPTS develops and maintains advanced standards for educators and offers a national, voluntary assessm ...

(NBPTS) from 2001 to 2009 as a Certification Council Member, Scoring Director, Science Portfolio Trainer, faculty member for the Development of National Mentoring Standards, Renewal Document Development team member, and portfolio development team member.

TIES

In 2013, she met Dawkins at the

and discussed

evolution Evolution is change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. These characteristics are the expressions of genes, which are passed on from parent to offspring during reproduction. Variation ...

education with him. This and her belief that teachers learn the most from each other inspired her to conduct workshops on evolution for her fellow teachers. Dawkins followed up with a visit to Vazquez's school in 2014 to speak to teachers from the Miami-Dade County school district. This encounter along with the encouragement of Dawkins and Robyn Blumner led to the beginnings, in 2015, of the Teacher Institute for Evolutionary Science. Vazquez sees TIES as not only about evolution education but also about empowering teachers to be leaders in their educational communities. Since its inception, TIES has presented over 300 teacher professional development workshops in all 50 states.

Publications

*The book
''On Teaching Evolution''
was published in December 2021. Written by members of the Teacher Institute for Evolutionary Science who have tackled the topic of evolution in their classroom for decades,
On Teaching Evolution
' offers practical advice and sample lesson plans for fellow science teachers. *In June 2022, Bertha Vazquez translated the book, ''Breve Historia de 4 Mil Millones de Años: Entendiendo a Darwin'', by Maria Jinich. *Vazquez, Bertha & Landorf, Hilary & Simons-Lane, L. (2016). Next Door to Old Smokey: Engaging in Scientific Measurements and Public Action. Middle Level Learning. January/February 2016. 12–16. *Vazquez, Bertha (2017) Helping Teachers Teach Evolution in the United States, Skeptical Inquirer Volume 41.3, May/June 2016 *Vazquez, Bertha (17 July 2017). "A state-by-state comparison of middle school science standards on evolution in the United States" Evolution: Education and Outreach. 10 (5)

References

External links

The Teacher Institute for Evolutionary Science

Skeptical Inquirer column
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vazquez, Beatrice 20th-century American women educators 21st-century American women educators 21st-century American educators Science teachers American educators Educators from Florida Schoolteachers from Florida Hispanic and Latino American teachers University of Miami alumni Living people Year of birth missing (living people)