Last Tuesday, five Iowa educators were announced as the finalists of the 2023 Presidential Awards for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching. Our own MMCRU teacher, Matt Hansen, who teaches science with a heavy focus on industrial technology is one of the five finalists for the award. During the interview, he was asked if he was aware of beingselected for the award: “I am told that this will be late October or early November of this year; however, the decision is ultimately made by the Whitehouse so it could take longer.”
For this prestigious award, outstanding teachers who are dedicated to making improvements to science, mathematics, engineering, and technology education are selected. Since 1983, the National Science Foundation has recognized and awarded more than 5000 teachers. This is the highest recognition that a mathematics or science teacher may receive in the United States. We further questioned Hansen about his thoughts on being a finalist for this award.
Hansen shares with us, “I am honored to be a finalist for this prestigious award as it has given me another platform to advocate for our school, students, and Career and Technical Education. Being that I am an industrial technology instructor, I was especially proud to make the final round in this process as I was the only CTE teacher in a finalist field of mathematics and science educators. So often, the skilled and technical trades are overlooked as viable career fields as well as practical applications of core content and I hope that by being nominated for this award, we can shed more light on the importance of skilled and technical trades.”
Congratulations to Matt Hansen on being selected as one of the five finalists and we are grateful to have you with us at MMCRU. As for announcement of winners, names of winners will be released later this year.