The Octorara Area Education Association recently announced that William McWatters, a physics teacher at Octorara Junior-Senior High School, has received the Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching (PAEMST). The award, created in 1983, is the highest honor conferred by the U.S. government specifically to teachers of math and science.

After being nominated for the award by Octorara teacher Jen Watson, McWatters had to take part in an extensive application process that began in the summer of 2018. In addition to written documents, he had to submit a video of himself teaching a class, along with a self-evaluation. "It ended up being 27 pages of written work," he explained. "I was not done until spring of 2019. In the fall of 2019, I was named one of Pennsylvania's three finalists. I was informed in early August of 2020 that I was the winner."

McWatters received a congratulatory letter from President Donald Trump and a financial award. Because of COVID-19, a virtual award ceremony was held in August. "They have not given any information yet, but there was a promise to bring us to Washington the next time they have an in-person event; that may still happen," he noted.

McWatters did not follow the traditional career path. After failing out of college at age 18, McWatters worked at a tire center for about a decade before starting college again at age 27. "In the interim of those 10 years when I was a college dropout, I coached a lot of sports teams - Little League Baseball and basketball and soccer," he noted. "I really enjoyed it, so when I decided to go back to college, I wanted to be a teacher."

He earned his Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts degrees in physics from the University of Delaware and his Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in educational leadership from Wilmington University. "When I was doing oil changes and flat (tire) repairs for $9 an hour, no one thought I would go on to earn multiple degrees in physics and eventually be recognized by the President of the United States," McWatters commented.

McWatters offers advanced science courses at Octorara, as well as dual-enrollment courses in conjunction with the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia. He is also the faculty adviser for Octorara's Physics Fight Club team, which competes annually in the International Young Physicists tournament. Octorara's team is the four-time defending national champion under McWatters' guidance, and the team has competed in Singapore, Beijing and Warsaw.

McWatters said that the award is "a seal of approval" that his teaching style is working. "Basically, I put a series of problems in front of the students to work on," he said. "When we are not in a pandemic and in my classroom, (students) do hands-on laboratory investigations 60% to 70% of the time."

He also describes winning the award as "both humbling and exhilarating as I look to make my students' experience more robust."

"I won this award and it's really cool, but there are some really great teachers at Octorara. I'm pretty sure I'm not the best teacher in my hallway, let alone the building," he stated. "There are some fantastic teachers who have not been recognized in this way."