First it was biology teacher Chris Ham being named Frisco ISD Secondary Teacher of the Year, and now another Redhawks science teacher is being recognized for his work as Kenric Davies was awarded the inaugural Doc Brown Futures Leaders Award by the American Association of Physics Teachers. 

“It is pretty exciting,” teacher Kenric Davies said via email. “It is the first time that I have been recognized for the work that I do outside of my own classroom. I volunteer quite a bit of my time to help progress physics education in a practical sense by working with teachers on different ways they can teach concepts more effectively. To be recognized in such a big way is awesome.”

Having a teacher receive national recognition shines a positive spotlight on the school, but for principal Ashley Rainwater, it’s Davies’ work in the classroom that stands out. 

“We are lucky to have Mr. Davies in our science department,” Rainwater said in a Frisco ISD news release. “I always enjoy going into his classroom and seeing kids actively engaged in learning.” 

During Davies’ 5 years teaching with FISD, he has led his students in a variety of projects from 3D printing to solar system building. But his work doesn’t stop when the school days ends as he also organizes the physics strand of the STAT annual fall meeting (5,000 to 8,000 teachers attend each year) and also contributes largely to the Texas Section of the American Association of Physics Teachers (TSAAPT) biannual newsletter.

“I have had the opportunity to do so many things in a relatively short amount of time,” Davies said via email. “What I have enjoyed the most is being a part of physics education at the national level. I have met so many great physics teachers from all over the country who have impacted me, and I hope vice versa.”

Davies will be honored at the American Association of Physics Teachers Virtual Winter Meeting January 2021 and/or the summer meeting in Washington, D.C. in July 2021. Despite his national presence, his love for physics began locally.

“I fell in love with physics when I was in IPC in 8th grade,” Davies said via email. “The idea of being able to predict the outcome of an experiment given certain knowledge using math was something that excited me. I stayed with physics until I made it to Texas A&M University. A few semesters into my Bachelor’s degree, I decided to get my teacher certification as a back up plan in case I couldn’t find anything else after graduation. In retrospect, this is a terrible reason for getting into teaching but it worked out for me. When I actually got a taste of being a teacher and helping other students find the same excitement that I experienced so many years before was a whole new level of joy. My ‘backup’ plan became my primary plan and I have never looked back.”

Davies is the elected high school representative and section liaison for the Science Teachers Association of Texas, and he will also fulfill the position on the STAT Executive board as a Member at Large starting this year. Davies seeks to continually inspire both the physics community, and his students.

“I used to keep track of the number of students who graduated that I had taught,” Davies said via email. “After a few years, that number just became too big to keep up with accurately. I feel like my biggest reward as a teacher is seeing the impact that I can have on so many students. I have a handful of stories from over the 10 years that I have been teaching of students who changed their field of study because of the impact my class had on them…even a few physics majors.”