The teacher of 31 years has been made a member of the Order of Australia for his service to secondary science and astronomy education in Monday’s Queen’s Birthday honours.

It remains a mystery to Mr McNamara who nominated him, and he said the recognition came as a huge surprise.

“It’s a recognition of teaching as a role in our society and I think that’s sometimes a little bit overlooked," he said.

The author of 100 papers for science magazines and winner of numerous teaching awards has a telescope named in part after him, after his role developing it as an education resource.

His passion for science and teaching drove him to help develop the McNamara-Saunders Astronomical Teaching Telescope, a high-end 30cm robotic instrument housed in a dome, and a range of smaller telescopes to help students understand the world around them.

“All these kids are extraordinary and it has been an honour to be a little part of their lives and to be witness of what they can do," Mr McNamara said.

“Science is the most important subject they are going to learn, because of the nature of the world they grow up in, it has to be.

“They have to be scientifically literate in order to understand what to make of it all.”

The renowned teacher’s passion for helping students comes from his own experience at school.

He dropped out of school in year 11 after he “went off the rails”.

“I didn’t follow the traditional path, but that in itself helped me relate to other kids who were thinking ‘why do I have to stay in school?’

“I can tell them my story and they think ‘Mr Mac dropped out of high school and now he is a science teacher’.

“It is giving them permission to feel a little less certain and takes the pressure off them and that is an important part of teaching,” he said.

While Mr McNamara will be absent from Monday’s celebrations, he will mark the achievement with a “once in a lifetime trip” to Europe with his family.