Physicist Stephen Hawking has unveiled this year’s Top 10 Global Teacher Prize Finalists.

The ten teachers come from as broad an array of teaching environments as there could be.

They have all improved the lives of untold numbers of students, using everything from the most cutting-edge tech tools to simple song and dance.

There is even one finalist from Australia.

Richard Johnson, a teacher at the Rostrata Primary School in Western Australia, stands to be recognised for transforming science teaching through technology.

He runs an innovative laboratory where students use robotics, 3D-printing, augmented reality and a host of other tools, real and online, to engage with STEM subjects.

He also shares his methods with the wider educational community at conferences and online.

Other entrants hail from as far away as Pakistan, Kenya, the US and Japan, where they have battled everything from apathy to apartheid to achieve top educational outcomes.

Theoretical physicist and cosmologist Professor Stephen Hawking runs through the list in the video below, followed by a clip highlighting the work of local finalist Richard Johnson.

More details on the full top 10 are available here.