Robert Spencer

Anderson, SC | 7-12, Science, 2017

What motivates you to contribute to excellence in STEM teaching?

I believe that as a professional educator, it is my responsibility to become the best that I can be. I inherited this belief system from my parents. I have also had the good fortune to observe and work with master teachers, some of whom are PAEMST awardees. It is imperative that students today get a quality science education. Given my upbringing and my professional experiences, I am continually motivated to contribute to excellence in STEM teaching to meet the needs of these students.

What has been the most transformative moment that affirmed your impact on STEM education?

I had been teaching for 10 years when I was introduced to a guided inquiry pedagogy called modeling physics. I re-calibrated everything I did in my physics classroom after that first modeling workshop. I stopped teaching the students via direct instruction and began guiding them to develop the scientific models themselves. I encouraged students to participate in Socratic questioning and in model development. My students became more proficient at science. After five years of teaching physics using the modeling pedagogy, I was asked to co-lead summer modeling workshops for other physics teachers. It was truly transformative to witness these physics teachers realize that this "new" way of teaching was a significant upgrade.

Using your platform as a Presidential Awardee, how do you hope to advance our nation in STEM?

As a Presidential Awardee, I hope to use my experience to encourage other outstanding teachers to strive to become Presidential Award winners themselves. I hope to continue to encourage students to develop excellent scientific habits so that they can be successful in STEM careers. I hope to continue to share my experiences with colleagues at AAPT meetings. Finally, I hope to use my platform as a Presidential Awardee to inspire young people to consider becoming STEM teachers themselves.

Biography

Robert "Rob" Spencer has taught at T.L. Hanna High School for the past eight years. He presently teaches Advanced Placement, Honors, and College Prep Physics as well as Physical Science. He previously taught in Indiana for 20 years at Bedford-North Lawrence High School and West Lafayette Jr/Sr High School. Rob was an associate teacher at QuarkNet-Indiana University where students from participating schools built a muon detector from scratch. He also participated as an associate teacher at QuarkNet-Purdue University, where students interpreted data from FermiLab and CERN. Rob has gleaned many strategies from physics education research in order to strengthen his classroom instruction- including Modeling Physics, a guided inquiry approach shown to improve student learning through the development and deployment of physics models. He has been a workshop leader for Modeling Instruction having co-led workshops in Indiana and Georgia. Rob has been active in American Association of Physics Teachers’ sections in Indiana and South Carolina--serving in leadership roles and presenting talks. Rob earned a B.S. in physics from Western Kentucky University and a M.S. in physics from Indiana University. He is certified to teach physics, mathematics, and middle level mathematics. Rob has endorsements in AP-Physics: Mechanics, AP-Physics: Electricity and Magnetism, and Gifted and Talented.

High-resolution version of the official portrait photograph
Awardee holding Presidential certificate with National Science Foundation Directorate for Education and Human Resources Assistant Director, Dr. Karen Marrongelle, White House Office of Science and Technology Policy Director, Dr. Kelvin K. Droegemeier, and National Science Foundation Chief Operating Officer, Dr. F. Fleming Crim
High-resolution version of the teacher profile photograph

The views expressed in awardee profiles are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of NSF or the PAEMST program.