The Knowles Science Teaching Foundation (KSTF) awarded the fifth cohort of Science Teaching Fellowships in March 2006. For more information about our fellows, click on a picture.

Aaron Debbink			Kristen Fancher	Jason Gipson-Nahman
Ajatshatru Mehta			Christy Metzger	Matt Randall
Katey Shirey			Cathy Tempest	Andrew Wild

Aaron Debbink

My childhood memories in Burlington, Wisconsin, include climbing trees, building forts, and exploring the swamp behind our house with my brothers. After trying 10 long years to have children, my mother was not quite ready to part with us when it came time for our schooling. As a result, the first nine years of my education was under her careful guidance. Entering the public schools in 9th grade, I felt that my home schooling experiences had prepared a solid academic foundation and instilled in me a desire to be lifelong learner.  In high school, I found that physics was something I enjoyed and excelled at. This led me to pursue an engineering physics degree at Taylor University in Upland, Indiana, in hopes of becoming an engineer. 

After a summer job working to reverse-engineer a microchip and a senior project working on a small telecommunications satellite, I realized that long hours alone in a lab were not something I enjoyed. At the same time, my other college experiences were leading me toward something more personally fulfilling. At Taylor I also worked as a laboratory assistant and physics tutor and volunteered with several different youth organizations, including a summer internship with Youth for Christ. It was through these experiences that I came to realize I have a desire to work with students and a passion for teaching.  

Knowing that I wanted to teach, I taught a semester of physical science at a local private school for my college internship. The following year I joined the staff as a full time teacher at the King's Academy in Gas City, Indiana. Since it was a small school I taught a little bit of everything: physics, algebra I, computer applications and physical education. I also coached cross-country and basketball, and taught a beginner guitar class. It was one of the most challenging years of my life, but also one of the most rewarding. My experiences at the academy confirmed that teaching was what I loved and what I would continue to pursue.  

Kristen Fancher

I was born and raised in the suburbs of Detroit. I attended Troy High School and took as many math and science classes as I could fit in. This is where my love for chemistry began as I had two wonderful teachers who really made the subject come alive! While completing my undergraduate work at Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan, I was able to do quite a bit of research in different areas. My first research experience was in a physical chemistry lab where we were studying the electron transfer rate in DNA. During my third year at OU, I decided to take a semester off and do some research at Mote Marine Laboratories in Sarasota, Florida. This was probably the best experience of my undergraduate career. I was able to work on some immunology studies and cancer research on sharks and skates. Then in my fifth year at Oakland, I switched to an organic chemistry lab where I worked on a DNA-ligand binding project as well as a project to synthesize the precursor to a C-5’ radical of a nucleoside. 

In addition to the research positions I held, I was also able to work as a tutor, a lab report grader, and a teacher’s assistant for several general chemistry labs. I really loved these jobs – they were actually the only jobs I always looked forward to doing. It was so fun and rewarding to work with students. I graduated from OU in December 2003 with a BS in chemistry and a BA in biology without any clue as to what I wanted to be when I “grew up.” So worked at a chemical company in Ann Arbor, Michigan two years as a synthetic organic chemist, even though I knew the lab was not where I wanted to be. I want to do something more fulfilling. About six months into working at the chemical company, I realized my true passion was in teaching – this was where I could make the greatest difference. 

Jason Gipson-Nahman

When I was in middle school, my mother told me that I should dedicate a few years of my life to teaching, in an effort to give something back to the world. I swore that teaching was not for me, and that I would always have a career that was financially rewarding. Now, I’m convinced that I jinxed myself that day. 

I am a native Texan. Born and raised in Houston, I attended the University of Texas at Austin where I earned a BS in mechanical engineering and a BA in Spanish. My fascination with high school physics led me to choose engineering as my first major. My love for Spanish goes back to kindergarten, when I first started learning the language. While in college, I interned for three summers with Texaco and Ford Motor Company, including a summer spent working on offshore production platforms in the Gulf of Mexico, 120 miles from the Louisiana coast. During my last internship with Ford, however, I was forced to spend many hours playing with manufacturing software and, as a result, I caught the “computer bug.” After graduating in 2000, I worked as an information technology consultant for a small software development company for more than two years. At first, the weekly travel was fun and the job was definitely financially rewarding, but sitting in airports and living in hotels soon grew old. 

Ajatshatru Mehta

I was born in one of the most populous cities of the world – New Delhi, India – and  spent my childhood and teenage years there. As a child I was always fascinated with natural phenomena and colorful displays. I learned science by listening to stories about everyday phenomena from my mother. My favorite part of going to school was seeing the chemistry demonstrations in class. I liked all aspects of physical sciences but was rather scared of biological science because of names and diagrams. After graduating from Senior Secondary (the equivalent of U.S. high school), I completed my BS in chemistry with honors from St. Stephen's College, New Delhi. As an undergraduate I started tutoring students to earn some quick cash. It generated my interest in teaching and also helped me to develop clarity in the language of science. In my final year in New Delhi, I won a full scholarship to pursue my interest in chemistry at Clare College at the University of Cambridge, England. It was a dream come true to learn from the scientists whose names I had heard and whose work I had read. It was a sheer pleasure to mingle with very approachable teachers and intelligent fellow students. My time at Cambridge helped me a lot in forming my opinions about critical issues in science and technology. 

I strongly considered going into teaching after Cambridge, but my interest in pure science took me across the Atlantic to pursue a PhD in chemistry at the Ohio State University. The recitation settings and concept of “Teaching Associate” was very alien to me, not to mention the confusion about spellings of words (colour vs. color!). However, it was a joyous experience to learn new things and to teach to others. It was during this period I started helping high school students with homework in the local library. I realized that students here have the same concerns, questions and doubts as I did. It was satisfying to see them learn to appreciate science and to be able to help them learn more. It was also time to think of future goals and what to do with the degrees I had accumulated. I was stuck between choosing a conventional career in chemistry, or something which I enjoyed (teaching). After a few visits to the high schools and meeting with the teachers and students there, I decided to join the teaching profession. 

Matt Randall

I was raised in Snohomish, Washington, by two supportive parents, Dean and Rosemary, and shared my childhood with two younger siblings, Mike and Lauren.  As a kid, my life revolved around sports, video games, and school.  After graduating from Snohomish High School, I moved on to the University of Washington, where I earned degrees in both physics and applied mathematics.

While earning my degree in physics, I became involved with the Physics Education Group (PEG) at the UW.  I took a class called Physics by Inquiry in order to get my endorsement in physics, and came away with a different perspective on teaching.  Along with deepening my understanding of physics and developing the skills of listening and asking questions, this was also the first place where I was realized that as a teacher I need to be able to teach in ways that are different from the ways that I learn. After taking a few more classes at PEG, I was a TA in their undergraduate physics classes and an instructor at the Summer Institute for Inservice Teachers.  My experience at PEG has truly shaped the way that I now think about teaching.

As an undergraduate I held a variety of teaching and coaching roles.  I first fell in love with coaching at Zion Lutheran Middle School, where I coached cross-country and track for four years. At UW I tutored at a math and science drop-in center for five years and with the Science Outreach Program and GEAR UP. I spent the summer before my senior year in Ethiopia where I taught English classes to young students and adults, and also coached a basketball team.  I spent another summer as a camp counselor at Rainbow Glacier Camp in Haines, Alaska.  I have been involved with local youth groups, and currently lead a youth worship band at my church.  The overwhelming theme here is that I enjoy working with adolescents in many different settings.  Because of these experiences, I can’t think of anything more exciting and potentially rewarding than meeting up to 150 unique adolescents each year, throwing things (that’s what we get to do in physics), and challenging them to think about the world in new ways. 

Katey Shirey

Though the subjects of art and physics may seem unrelated at first glance, through the course of my education, I have come to find them inextricably linked. During high school in Arlington, Virginia, I enjoyed both art and physics, though my love for each began differently. I always took art classes as a young child, but it wasn't until eleventh grade that I discovered that there was a name for all the interesting stuff that was always going on around me: physics.

After high school I moved to Chicago to study sculpture but missed the rigor of physics, and after a year I returned to Virginia to study both physics and sculpture at the University of Virginia. I graduated with a BA in both physics and studio art, and a minor in art history.

I used physics in my art from almost the very start of my undergraduate career. I tried to explain physics and physical phenomenon through large-scale kinetic sculptures and installations. This combination seemed natural and necessary for me to express. Physics was always on my mind, even as I planned sculptures and pushed my aesthetic and technical prowess. In physics classes, I tried to incorporate art from the process of smelting bronze to the rotational acceleration of a potter's wheel.

In 2004, I was awarded the Fifth-Year Aunspaugh Fellowship in the McIntire Department of Art at UVA for the 2004-2005 school year. The fellowship gave me a chance to work as an artist and sculpture teacher's assistant. While working with the art students I realized that I wanted my students to learn more about their world through their art, and that sculpture class was not the place to teach it. I made the decision to return to school to study physics education with the hopes of eventually developing a curriculum that can teach physics using art. What I really like about art and physics is that both subjects have the potential for infinite possible outcomes, and thus they encourage the artist or physicist to take varied approaches supported by strong reasoning. By teaching how abstract thought and creative problem solving can yield positive results, students will learn how to better understand physics and their world.

I am currently finishing my first year in the Curry School of Education at the University of Virginia. The program here has taught me many new strategies and skills that I will use in my student teaching placement in fall 2006 at Albemarle High School in Charlottesville, Virginia. I have become a firm believer in the differentiated classroom, as well as in emphasizing the nature of science and the history of science as parts of the physics curriculum.

When I graduate from Curry next spring I will begin my teaching career as a certified physics teacher. I am excited and anxious for the opportunity to have my own classes. I can't wait to find out which teaching practices will work best for me and my students. Certainly my main goal is to teach every student in the best way I can.

Cathy Tempest

After graduating from Duke University with my Master of Arts in teaching degree this past May, I will be starting my first year of teaching at Ardrey Kell High School in Charlotte, North Carolina. Ardrey Kell first opened its doors in the fall of 2006 and is in its second year of educating students with a mission of “developing creative and independent thinkers with a strong sense of honor, respect and service.” I am so excited to be among the faculty of this exceptional high school and know that I am in a superior place to begin my first years of teaching.  This semester I will be teaching both AP environmental science and Earth science. Having completed minors in both environmental studies and geoscience at Hobart and William Smith Colleges in Geneva, NY (I majored in chemistry while there), as well as internships at NASA and General Motors, I feel fully prepared to take on this challenge with a breadth of academic and real-life experience to bring into the classroom. 

My greatest hope for this year is to challenge my students to think about science from a different perspective and understand how to approach science as a process, and not necessarily a “method.”  As I think about teaching Earth science this year, I reflect back to my own high school experience. It was during my freshman year when I was turned on to science by my Earth science teacher, Mr. Oyer. Through the years, he mentored me and truly inspired me to enter the profession of science teaching. Knowing that I will be following in his footsteps, a dream I have held for ten years now, leaves me with the satisfaction of accomplishing my goals and the determination to help my own students work to see theirs. 

Andrew Wild

I grew up in Janesville, Wisconsin, best described as a suburb of nowhere near Madison.  I remember having a love of learning and ideas, but I especially enjoyed the creativity and logical analysis involved in science.  After high school, I attended Carleton College, in the cozy college town of Northfield, Minnesota.  Carleton was a great place to learn and socialize, and I was able to continue pursuing my musical (playing trumpet) and athletic (football) interests.  I was introduced to foods like avocados and hummus which had previously been foreign to me, and I appreciated the opportunity to work closely with outstanding chemistry mentors. 

During the summers during college I did organic chemistry research.  This experience inspired my interest in attending graduate school in chemistry.  However, two overseas teaching experiences – in  Nepal and Thailand – heightened my awareness of international educational inequity and manifestations of power and culture in the classroom.  I also found working with youth extremely rewarding.  When I returned from Thailand, I spent a semester at UW-Madison studying educational policy and politics/philosophy of education, and I decided that the classroom was the place for me