Groton - As a child, future West Side Middle School teacher Erica Watson stood out from her peers.

By the age of 8 she was far more mature than her peers, and by the time she was 12 she was devouring anatomy and physiology textbooks, according to her mentor and University of Connecticut scientist Claudia Koerting. As a middle school student, Watson would visit Koerting in the lab where she worked.

Koerting spoke last week about the science teacher who won the K-12 Promotion of Education award earlier this month at the 29th Black Engineer of the Year Awards STEM Conference in Washington, D.C. STEM stands for Science Technology Engineering and Math.

"What I took away from this was how can we as adults inspire someone who's younger?" Watson said last week. "I challenge everyone to consider how can you take the attributes of someone who inspired you and apply those or whatever characteristics you have to someone else."

As she sat in her classroom last week with two of her students at West Side Middle School, Watson, 38, reflected on the day several months ago when she first received word that she'd won the award.

Watson was teaching at Bennie Dover Jackson Middle School in New London at the time. Her dad, retired Adm. Tony Watson, was visiting for the day, and he was acting strange. Then an announcement came over the school's intercom system. Adm. Watson had called the person in charge of the program issuing the award, and put him on speaker phone to deliver the congratulations, which played on the intercom throughout the school.

"I started crying and I'm not a crier," Watson said, "I was completely overwhelmed."

The recognition still doesn't feel real.

"I'm still checking like ya'll sure?" she said.

She was nominated for the award by Bennie Dover principal Alison Burdick and four of her peers.

"We have a lot more African-American physicians. We have a lot more Latinos in engineering. We have a lot more women in mathematics," Watson said. "We still have a long way to go but the shift has caused a major change in how we see different professional fields in America and how we use them."

Watson, who was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, comes from a Navy family. Her father, a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, spent 30 years operating submarine nuclear power plants, including commanding nuclear submarines, and eventually achieved the rank of rear admiral. Watson grew up in Gales Ferry, where she fell in love with science and specifically the human body around third grade.

"My lifetime mentor Claudia is the one who inspired that," she said.

Koerting and Watson first connected as teacher and student in Sunday school.

"Claudia kicks my butt when I need it," Watson said.

"But she's also kind when I need it. She's been the number one person to push me in my life as far as science, and as far as single parenting, as far as becoming a leader. It's really been Claudia," she said.

In her letter of recommendation on behalf of Watson for the Alternate Route to Teacher Certification, Koerting wrote, "Erica's ability to command presence is obvious the moment she walks into a room. She was a highly sought after substitute teacher in the New London school system for her ability to control a classroom and teach."

A teacher for 12 years now, that presence has become an integral part of Watson's teaching style. Eight weeks ago she transferred from Bennie Dover to West Side, where she teaches four science classes and one STEM class.

As her students at West Side tell it, she's engaging from the moment they walk into the room.

"At first I was like I want to see how this turns out, and I left laughing. She's hilarious," said eighth-grader Trianna, 14.

"When you don't want to learn she'll make it funny for you … She'll put it in a fun way," she said. Just the other day, Watson was dancing around her classroom and talking in a funny voice as she taught.

"When you come bored to class, you don't want to do nothing ... she gives you motivation to do it. (She) makes everything fun," said Jared, 14, another one of Watson's eighth-grade students.

"I'm only motivated by you guys, you know this right?" Watson tells the two of them.

Watson's students are currently learning about friction and its effect on moving objects.

"STEM to me is the basis of learning," Watson said.

"It also promotes a better attitude in students because they do become more expressive when they can explain to you scientific phenomena or relate to those scientific phenomena," she said. "I also see STEM as a way to encourage people to speak and write better because you learn stuff and then you got to talk about it and write about it. It's really the basis of everything."

John Jones, principal at West Side, said that school officials are "proud and excited" about Watson's achievement.

"Erica's dedication to science and her students is just one of many components that makes West Side a great school," Jones said by email.

Those who speak about Watson's accomplishments, teaching and otherwise, are quick to mention that she did all this while juggling single parenthood. Watson runs a small catering business and an Amistad Multicutural Program, and is very active in her church.

"She did whatever she could to be there while also providing for them," said lifelong friend Amy Kobelski of Watson's two children Joaquin, 18, and Sasha, 16. Watson put herself through school while raising her two children.

Watson was the first person Kobelski met in kindergarten and is now the godmother to Kobelski's two children.

"She's just one of those teachers that you just hope someday your child will get," she said, adding that Watson's teaching skills aren't that different from her parenting skills.

" She expects a lot out of the kids because she knows they can give it," Kobelski said.

j.bergman@theday.com

Twitter: JuliaSBergman