Teaching couple win 2nd excellence award

Some couples have chemistry. Karen and Scot Gill have physics.

They're physics teachers -- Karen at Henry Clay High School, and Scot at Tates Creek High School.

Both have been winners of the Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching. Scot received his award last March, and Karen received hers this March.

"She's more creative," Scot said of Karen's teaching. "She comes up with good ideas, and I steal them."

"He's more energetic. He's more exciting to watch teach," Karen said. "My ideas he can steal, but his energy, I can't."

Their hands-on teaching philosophies are similar and so are their rZsumZs.

Karen, 36, and Scot, 35, both graduated from Transylvania University with double majors in math and physics. Both were valedictorians for their respective high school classes, Karen at Bryan Station and Scot at Woodford County.

Both even had students win the grand prize in a national math and physics competition sponsored by Insight Communications and ESPN.

They've equally matched each other's teaching accomplishments, although Karen said she wouldn't have tried for the Presidential award if she had not been nominated.

"I was like, 'What if I don't get it? He'll know I lost,'" Karen said.

Scot, on the other hand, didn't have any worries for his wife.

"Her application was probably better than mine," he said. "She's a better teacher."

Their rZsumZs are similar, but not identical. Both have masters degrees in education, but Scot counters Karen's National Board Certification with his own masters in physics.

The two have collaborated on their teaching styles, choosing to use textbooks as reference material instead of a main teaching tool. They have tried to make physics more interactive for their students by using experiments and hands-on learning they can apply to their daily lives.

"We try to make it fun; we try to make it interesting. But we try to make it rigorous," Scot said.

Karen said they both try to get their students involved in physics. They fill their days with battery-powered cars, water balloons and a big red board that spins while Scot and students sit on it to demonstrate centripetal force.

"We present the material so it fits together and kids come out with something that's coherent. I think they come out with a pretty good structure," Karen said.

It's fitting that a pair who spend so much time in the classroom, met in the classroom, a computer science class at Transylvania.

"I was a sophomore, and he was a cocky freshman," Karen said. "He thought he knew everything. It turned out he knew a heck of a lot."

Their first date was a ride on Scot's motorcycle, a street-legal dirt bike.

"It was different," Karen said.

They have taught for a combined 24 years and have been married since 1991.

They don't have children but they dote on a dog they adopted from the Humane Society. His name is Tycho, named after an astronomer.

"It's such a science person thing to do," Karen said. "Naming your dog after a scientist."