The Christa McAuliffe Memorial Award honors a public, private, or parochial classroom teacher (K – 12th grade) who demonstrates excellence in furthering the concepts of aerospace technologies in the classroom through successful, innovative curricular classroom programs.

Welsh was singled out for his innovative approach in teaching physics at D.W. Daniel High School. He will receive the $5,000 award during the AFA National Convention and Conference in Washington, DC, on September 12, 2005.

Welsh developed both an AP physics class and a TP physics program. The entire AP physics curriculum deals with Newtonian Mechanics and the TP program devotes about two-thirds of the program to motion. Aerospace topics are liberally incorporated into each of the courses. In the AP Physics class, simple harmonic motion and exponential growth and decay are covered and the class finishes with a unit on gravitation and the physics of spaceflight. The TP class covers units on electrostatics, DC circuits, waves and sound. He is a truly “rounded” teacher who excels in the teaching profession and contributes to his community through programs such as the Habitat for Humanity.

In 2005, AEF will also honor a second and third place winner for the McAuliffe Award. The second place award of $2,500 will be given to Jeri Ann Martin who teaches at Thomas L. Sims Middle School in Pace, Florida. Ms. Martin was nominated for the award by the AFA Hurlburt Chapter. The third place award of $1,000 will be given to Paul Willard of Franklin County High School in Rocky Mount, Virginia. He was nominated by the AFA Roanoke Chapter. The presentations of the second and third place awards are being coordinated with the sponsoring units.

The Aerospace Education Foundation offers numerous scholarships, grants, awards and public awareness programs to promote public awareness of the importance of science and technology to national defense.

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