1998

I never saw Deep Impact or Armageddon. But the preview for Deep Impact showed a scenario in which the Earth was about to take a beating and certain people were being moved into specially prepared shelters to survive the calamity.


So 1,000,000 people were going to be saved. Stay with me here! Of those, 800,000 via a lottery and 200,000 were pre-selected. And there were teachers in among those 200,000. How would they be chosen? I bet winners of the PAEMST were among the chosen ones.

In 1998, I applied for the Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching. I had recently completed my Masters of Science in Instructional Leadership (with Honors), was elected to the officer cycle for the Northern California and Nevada American Association of Physics Teachers, been published in The Physics Teacher, was an editor on the Metrologic Physics Bowl Exam, was on the Golden State Exam Development Committee, and played a role in my school's designation as a Department of Education Blue Ribbon School.

I had spent 11 years conquering the physics-teaching world and was ready for some recognition at the national level. My mentors, Walt Scheider and Steve Keith had earned this honor. As did my Northern California physics teaching colleagues, Paul Robinson and Andria Erzberger. These were all great physics teachers; I was a great physics teacher. It was time to join the club.

So I put together the best application I could. I polished it. I honed it.

I didn't make it past the first screening. That hurt. Worst of all, I had to fear comets just like everyone else.

It wasn't until 2000 that Susan Crown honored me with through Cornell's Merrill Scholar program. Later that year, Paul Hewitt happened upon my Book of Phyz and plugged my into the Conceptual Science team as lab manual author. Story for another post. And it wasn't until 2003 that was appointed to California's Content Review Panel. PTSOS didn't take off until after that, and the Laser Viewing Tank was a spin-off of that.

The "excellence in physics teaching" universe is bigger than I imagined. And I know now that I will never conquer it.