Every year, science students in the Gulfport school district anxiously await Rocketry Day. On this one special school day, 8th grade students in the district, 400 or so of them, convene with rockets they have been working on at their respective schools to show off their aerodynamic vessels and prepare them for take off. It's a highly anticipated event and it is all due to the work of Scott Pfaff, an AP Physics and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) teacher at Gulfport High School, MS, who plans, directs and implements Rocketry Day each year. Rocketry Day is just one item in a long list of programs Pfaff has implemented to revive interest in the sciences. Along with the principal, Pfaff started the Principal’s Leadership Team where he works with a purposely diverse group of 20 students who have shown leadership in their peer group, and delegates tasks that require growth and leadership skills, such as public speaking and event organizing. He is part of a program that trains middle school science teachers several afternoons a month and participates in a new teacher mentoring program. Pfaff found ways to incorporate real-world learning into his classroom experience by establishing paid and unpaid internships with local businesses, such as Northern Gulf Institute at Stennis Space Center and the Gulfport City GIS Department. As a result of his efforts, AP physics enrollment has increased during his tenure at Gulfport from 45 to 85 students. As a science educator, Pfaff has launched not just rockets but the aspirations and opportunities for hundreds of Mississippi youth
1992 University of Southern Mississippi, B.S.- Philosophy & Religion
1993 University of Southern Mississippi B.S.- Science Education
1996 University of Edinburgh, Scotland, UK M.Sc.- Physics Education
