Science teacher JoAnn Schapp of Nedrose has been selected as the 2026-2027 Teacher of the Year by the Air & Space Forces Association David C. Jones Chapter 135 in Minot.
The AFA Teacher of the Year program recognizes educators through local chapters, regional selection and eventually a national award. The program honors the legacy of Christa McAuliffe, the teacher and astronaut who died in the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster.
Last year, Williston Teacher of the Year candidate Thomas Sando advanced to the national competition, where he placed third. Sando will be recognized at an AFA Awards Banquet on Saturday, September 12, in Washington, D.C.
The selection process for the next national Teacher of the Year has already begun, and Chapter 135’s choice is Schapp. She received the award during a special school gathering, where students gave her a well-earned standing ovation as she accepted the honor from AFA member Ron Garcia.
Schapp has been teaching for 36 years. We interviewed her during her STEM class at Nedrose, where she reflected on the path that brought her back to North Dakota.
“I’m from North Dakota, but El Paso, Texas, did a massive recruiting to get teachers from North Dakota to relocate to El Paso,” Schapp said. “There were a lot of North Dakota graduates that went down to El Paso, Texas. I taught there for five years, but every year I would come home during the summer and help my family farm. After a while, I just decided that I needed to be closer to home.”
Schapp’s family farms near Rice Lake. She attended grade school at South Prairie before going to high school in Minot.
Schapp has always taught science, and STEM—science, technology, engineering and math—has been a major focus for the AFA and for teachers carrying that work into classrooms.
“In STEM, I always start the year with flight because kids don’t really know how to make paper airplanes anymore,” Schapp said. “So, we start with flight and we do a lot of experimentation. Now we’ll start looking at what is involved in flight. Eventually we’ll start developing rubber-band-driven planes.”
Later in the year, students in Schapp’s class will work on cyber ciphering, which connects to AFA programs such as CyberPatriot and Stellar Explorers. They will also study and develop robots.
There are 13 students in Schapp’s class, a number she described as “a nice size.”
In addition to the Teacher of the Year citation, Schapp received $250 to use in her classroom. Asked what she planned to buy, Schapp said, “It will be some type of building kit. That’s what I want them doing is building.”
Responding to a comment about what makes a great teacher, Schapp summed up her approach to STEM this way: “For this class, I’m not really teaching. I’m just giving them the opportunities. Exposing them to different things.”
