Aidan Keaveney introduces the plenary speaker, Congressman Rush Holt, at the conference “2022 Physics Congress in Washington, DC.”
Early in the year, Watauga High School contacted Dr. Tonya Coffey, a professor and Director of Physics Secondary Education at Appalachian State, about a paid teaching opportunity for students attending Appalachian State. Aiden Keaveney, a full-time senior, jumped at the opportunity.
Aidan Keaveney is a graduate student from App State double majoring in Physics and Mathematics. He is from Durham, North Carolina and was offered the Chancellor Scholarship to attend App State. Keaveney has had many opportunities around the Watauga area to demonstrate his passion for science and mathematics.
“I teach [at Watauga High School], but I also do a lot of outreach events in the area and I volunteer a lot with the local homeschool group,” said Keaveney. “I do physics-type demos for [homeschool students] and I taught some of the students how to build a rocket out of scratch.”
Since working at WHS, Keaveney has gained meaningful experience in teaching high school physics. Although he does not see himself teaching high school classes in the future, Keaveney embraces every moment that he gets with his current students.
“Science is about empowerment. By knowing and being able to use it, it makes you powerful and gives you more ways of understanding the world,” said Keaveney. “Helping you guys gain that understanding is really rewarding to me.”
Keaveney enjoys teaching physics because it allows him to connect with students through something that he loves: physics.
“I get to talk about stuff that interests me all day,” said Keaveney.
Keaveney enjoys any time he can spend outside of being a full-time student and a full-time high school teacher. He enjoys swimming and listening to audio versions of his favorite books.
Keaveney enjoys sharing interesting physics knowledge that entices his students and pushes them to ask questions in class. He also tends to provide interesting physics facts, like “the term for being sucked into a blackhole is called spaghettification!”
Physics is not everyone’s favorite subject, but Keaveney has the ability to get kids to engage with the world around them by executing demos and hands-on activities during class.
“I do not like physics, but Mr. K makes [physics] exciting,” said junior Joey Peterson.
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