Next week, Butler Area School District teacher Beth Cooper will share the spotlight with surgical transplant pioneer Thomas Starzl and with a man who figured out how to keep ice from forming on solid surfaces and with a woman who is making seminal discoveries about Parkinson's disease. It will happen when the Carnegie Science Center presents its 2010 awards, and she realizes it's quite an honor.

"I was surprised," said Mrs. Cooper, 48, of Butler Township. "I think the first thing I said was, 'How did you get my name?' I really couldn't believe it."

Mrs. Cooper, science coach and chairwoman of the Science Quality Council for the 11 elementary schools in Butler Area School District, will receive the Elementary Educator Award on May 7. Cindy Michelini, a fourth-grade teacher at the district's Meridian Elementary, nominated Mrs. Cooper's name for the award.

The award recognizes Mrs. Cooper's work as a teacher trainer in the district and at ASSET Inc., a Pittsburgh-based nonprofit that helps teachers across the state stay current in subjects, in teaching techniques and in the standards required by the government. Through her work at Butler Area and ASSET, Mrs. Cooper is having an impact on nearly 4,000 elementary pupils every year.

Mrs. Cooper joined Butler Area in 1993. For the first 13 years, she was a fourth-grade teacher at Meridian Elementary. In 2006, she moved into the role of science coach.

"My job is to work with teachers to make them better science teachers," she said. "I make sure they get the training and support they need, the supplies they need. ... I like to see teachers get excited about science because then I know the students will get excited, too."

Ms. Michelini said when she learned about the award, she knew Mrs. Cooper would be the perfect nominee.

"I nominated Beth for this award because ever since I have started my teaching career seven years ago, she has been a mentor not only to me but all teachers of science, and she works constantly at making our curriculum the best it can be for all of our students," she said. "There is not an elementary child in our district that has not been affected by some decision made by Mrs. Cooper, which is outstanding."

Even though Mrs. Cooper can't imagine working in anything but education now, there was a time when she had a far different goal.

"I thought I would be a hair dresser," she said. "My cousin owned a beauty shop, and when I was 14, I started working there, washing hair."

After high school, she got married and set about raising her two children. Then, after work at her church gave her a chance to teach youngsters, she was hooked.

"I think my interest in teaching just developed then. I really enjoyed teaching those kids," she said.

But 10 years out of high school and with two young kids, she wondered whether she would be able to make it in college. Despite her concerns, in 1990 she enrolled at Slippery Rock University.

"That first week I came home with a headache everyday," she said. "But after that, it was better. And with my kids, it worked out kind of good because we would all sit down and do our homework together at night." At the end of three years, she had earned her bachelor's degree in elementary education and was almost immediately hired by Butler Area.

As part of her current job, she gets the chance to go into classrooms and see how kids are reacting to lessons. And she points out that the style of teaching science has changed over the years.

Gone are the textbooks, replaced by interactive modules that teach kids about kinetic energy by having them build cars and about electricity by letting them wire a dollhouse with lights. Students also are learning other skills, such as clear writing, because they must track and explain their experiments in a journal.

"The difference now is that we are no longer just skimming the surface, we go into depth," she said.

When not at work, Mrs. Cooper enjoys being outside, working in her gardens of flowers and vegetables. She also is a baseball lover, following the Pittsburgh Pirates.

She runs Camp Invention for students in grades three through six at Butler Area during the summer and is a Eucharistic minister and member of the Christian Mothers/Womens' Guild at St. Fidelis Parish in Meridian.

She helps organize the church's annual breakfast for Butler Area graduates who attend the church. She also works on the care packages that church members send to the graduates who head off the college.

Sunday is her favorite day because that's when her extended family comes by for board games, cards and food.

Mrs. Cooper said she loves her job, even though she misses seeing students on a daily basis as she did as afourth-grade teacher. But, she said, she works to make sure she never forgets what being a teacher means.

"I never want a teacher to say, 'She forgot what it is like in the classroom,' " she said. "I try to always remember that so they aren't asked to do things that just wouldn't work in the classroom. That's important for everybody."

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