Gosford High School science head teacher Mark Butler has added the NSW Scientist of the Year 2008 Awards to his long list of teaching achievements by winning the Leadership in Secondary Science Teaching category.

Dr Butler started his science career developing lasers for cancer phototherapy but decided teaching offered the opportunity to “do the most good”.

Since joining Gosford High School in 1997, he has significantly increased senior science enrolments at the school, written text books and journal articles on science teaching and spoken at conferences.

“We instigated a program in Year 10 where [students] do a full term of physics, a full term of biology, and a term of chemistry… and it’s taught by a [teacher] specialist in the field,” Dr Butler said.

He said students who had lost interest in science by Year 9 could be re-engaged in Year 10, by giving them an appreciation of what senior science really entailed.

The school also brings in guest speakers and offers students a range of extension activities such as involvement in the Australian Museum Eureka Awards.

Dr Butler said the award has been particularly satisfying because it had allowed him to create an annual physics prize for his school and because his nomination came from a group of ex-students now completing doctorates in physics.