ROGERS -- Tiffany Taylor says she doesn't do anything different from other teachers.
"I just come in and do my thing," she said.
Her "thing" has garnered the seven-year Heritage High School physics teacher one national award, and she's been named a finalist for another.
The Physics Teacher Education Coalition, a partnership between the American Physical Society and the American Association of Physics Teachers, recently named Taylor its national teacher of the year for 2018.
The coalition gives the award annually to recognize outstanding high school physics teachers and to demonstrate the impact and value of physics teacher preparation programs -- part of the coalition's push to address what it calls a "severe, long-term shortage" of qualified physics teachers in the United States, according to a news release.
The shortage is evident in Arkansas. Physics has appeared for the last three years on a list of subject areas in which the state faces a critical shortage of public school teachers. The Arkansas Department of Education compiles the list.
Nominees for the physics teacher award come from the colleges and universities from which they graduated or received their teaching credentials. The University of Arkansas nominated Taylor.
BACK TO SCHOOL
Taylor already had a bachelor's degree in psychology from the University of Tulsa and a master's degree from the University of Virginia when she began working as an assistant softball coach at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville. The Oklahoma native decided to return to school, this time at the University of Arkansas with the goal of becoming a science teacher.
"I liked science in high school, and thought, I'll just do chemistry. I was good at it," she said.
She fell in love with physics along the way and switched her major.
Taylor has improved the visibility of the Advanced Placement physics program at Heritage High School in several ways, according to a news release from the coalition.
"Her teaching style is inquiry-based, because Taylor believes students learn better from interaction than lecture based," the release stated. "She follows lessons by posting classroom highlights on Twitter and maintaining a blog. This has increased the visibility of the class, as well as participation in the AP classes."
Taylor's efforts increased enrollment at Heritage High School from one section of 26 students to three sections with 80 students from year one to year two of her teaching Advanced Placement physics, according to the release. She now teaches four sections of Advanced Placement physics and one regular physics class.
She is awaiting news of another award. Taylor was named one of seven finalists from Arkansas last year for the Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching, an award program overseen by the National Science Foundation. Two teachers typically are chosen from each state for the award.
There's been no announcement yet of the winners from the 2017 application cycle. Winners from the 2016 cycle, including two from Northwest Arkansas, were announced this summer.
National Presidential Award winners each receive $10,000, a presidential citation and a trip to Washington for a series of recognition events, professional development activities and an awards ceremony.
Dylan Moore, a Heritage High senior, is in Taylor's Advanced Placement Physics 2 class this year after taking her Physics 1 class last year. Taylor helps students better understand the subject through hands-on activities, Moore said.
"I've been on some college tours and understood a lot of what I've been seeing in their science departments because of the studies we've done and the research we've done" in Taylor's class, he said.
He said Taylor holds review sessions that she works into her schedule as much as possible, even live-streaming them for students to watch from home.
"She's making a great effort getting a lot of different times for us to come in and get help if we have any trouble or anything," Moore said.
Karen Steen -- Heritage High School's principal for 10 years before accepting a new position this year as principal of Crossroads, the School District's alternative-learning school -- said Taylor's desire to explore different ways of getting lessons across to her students sets her apart.
"She's not afraid of failure, if it's trying something new to reach students," Steen said.
Taylor also has been the school's head softball coach since she started at Heritage in 2012 and has molded the girls on her team into leaders, Steen said.
"She's such a role model," she said.
TEACHER SHORTAGE
A 2012 report by the Task Force on Teacher Education in Physics called the need for qualified physics teachers "greater now than at any previous time in U.S. history."
"An acute shortage of new physics teachers, compounded by often inadequate preparation of current teachers to teach their subject effectively, has increasingly detrimental effects on our nation's competitiveness in scientific and technical industries," the report stated.
Beth Cunningham, executive officer of the American Association of Physics Teachers, said fewer than 10,000 people graduate college with a major in physics nationally each year, and the vast majority don't go into teaching. Many are attracted to careers with better salaries. The association is working to dispel perceptions people can't make a good living in education, Cunningham said.
The association also is trying to get colleges and universities to encourage their physics students to pursue teaching.
"If they want good students coming into their programs, they need good high school teachers to prepare those students," she said.
About 35 percent of the 1,400 new teachers who are hired to teach physics each year have a degree in physics or physics education, according to the coalition. Having some knowledge of physics is useful not only for scientists and engineers, but others as well, she said.
"I would say even being an auto mechanic, you have to understand a little physics," Cunningham said. "I don't think people realize how much physics is woven into everything we do."
Taylor said she thinks it's important for students to leave high school with some knowledge of physics because it helps explain the world around them.
"And I think it also teaches them how to think differently," she said. "Not just how to problem-solve, but how to examine situations from multiple angles. And that's really how I teach.
"When they go to college or just in life, they're going to be faced with some challenges. Let's come at it from as many ways as we can. That's what I hope to give them. And a love for physics, hopefully."
Metro on 09/04/2018