Watching students’ ideas evolve and listening to the great questions they asked showed me the impact teachers can have.”

Erin’s Story

As a youngster growing up in Three Oaks, Michigan, Erin McCamish particularly enjoyed science. “Each year in high school my science class was my favorite; I just wanted to study all of them.” Her eleventh grade physics class and a summer particle physics program at Notre Dame University focused her on physics. “I still love all the sciences, but physics excites me more than any other area.”

Erin began her undergraduate career at the University of Michigan set on majoring in physics. “I had my future in research planned out by my sophomore year.” Instead she discovered how much she enjoyed tutoring in the Physics Help Room and realized that her interest lay not in research but in education.

To explore teaching at the high school level, Erin took part in the Teaching Opportunities in Physical Sciences (TOPS) program in Boston where she taught energy and heat concepts to high school and middle school students. As a member of the Society of Physics Students at Michigan, she was involved in physics outreach and had a chance to design, build and present physics activities at the local Hands-On Museum. Erin earned her master’s degree and physics certification from Syracuse University.