The Knowles Science Teaching Foundation awarded the third cohort of Science Teaching Tellowships on June 1, 2004. For more information about our fellows, click on a picture.
Katie Blaske
If you would have asked me five years ago where I would be, I would have never said here.
I attended high school in Rockton, Illinois, twenty minutes north of Rockford, and three minutes south of Wisconsin. I had many wonderful teachers through my high school years, many of whom asked me if I was planning on teaching. I always said no; I was planning on being a research scientist working for Dow or Eli Lilly. And I had not planned on attending Purdue University. Both of my parents were Boilermaker alums, and I wanted to break the cycle.
As it ended up, Purdue felt like home to me, and here I am. I have worked with one of the most highly recognized young professors at Purdue, Dr. Jillian Buriak, on metal nanoparticle surfaces for biosensors under a grant from the US Government. While at Purdue I also had the opportunity to be hired for two different summer internships--one at S.C. Johnson and Sons working in the industrial cleaners division, and one at Cargill, Inc. performing quality assurance experiments on food-grade high fructose corn syrup. These experiences in the industrial world were engaging and enjoyable, but they convinced me that I really did not want to spend my time in a lab. So I have gone back to one of my first suggested careers, education.
I graduated from Purdue with my BS in chemistry with honors in May 2004, and I have one more year until I obtain my master's in chemical education and my secondary teaching license. I am currently student teaching at Benton Central Junior-Senior High School, a large, rural high school about twenty minutes outside of Lafayette. The experience is challenging and frightening sometimes, but when things go right, it's all worth it.
When I'm not studying standards or playing mad scientist in the lab, my life's passion is knitting. To some it may be a "grandma hobby", but it is so fulfilling to be able to wear something I have made or give a handmade gift to a loved one.
Heather Buskirk
I grew up in St. Louis, Missouri and graduated from Ladue High School in June of 2000. My interest in science developed during middle school and was encouraged by my two incredibly supportive parents. Although I had thought about teaching and had done a lot of tutoring in high school, I did not initially seek out a teacher education program for college.
In the fall of 2000, I enrolled at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia and majored in astronomy-physics with intentions of some day seeking a PhD in astrophysics. After a good bit of research experience as an undergrad I realized that it was not the correct path for me. However, I really enjoyed my part-time job operating telescopes for an astronomy observation class. I loved sharing the science with other students and realized that I should follow this passion. After meeting with my advisors, I decided to enroll in the five year joint Bachelor's in Arts/ Master's in Teaching Program at UVa beginning in the fall of my fourth year. In the spring of 2005 I received both my bachelor's and master's degrees.
During my summers as a college student I worked in the University Physics Department. Under Dr. Michael Fowler, programming several applets in Flash for use in teaching certain concepts in physics and astronomy. Additionally, I was a teaching assistant for the Master's in Arts in Physics Education (MAPE) program with Dr. Richard Lingren and Dr. Steve Thorton.
Currently, I teach three levels of physics at Johnstown High School in Johnstown, New York about forty miles west of Albany. Whenever I have a break from teaching and preparing for my classes, I like to head home to St. Louis to spend time with my family and ride horses on my parents' farm.
Kim Lintker
I grew up on a dairy farm in southern Illinois. Being on the farm was always a learning experience and a wonderful way to grow up. I attended Okawville Jr./Sr. High School. During my four years there, I was very active in girl's basketball. I was also involved in the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and Student Council. My senior year our basketball team won third place in the Illinois State Tournament and I was President of the Student Council. During high school, I enjoyed my science classes more than the other classes I took. I had very good high school teachers who were supportive and encouraging.
When I was deciding on which college to attend, I was offered a scholarship to play basketball at a local junior college. Not yet willing to give up the sport, I went to Southwestern Illinois College (SWIC) to play basketball and work towards becoming a physical therapist. I soon realized that physical therapy was not exactly what I wanted to do, so I changed my major to chemistry. I had a wonderful introductory chemistry professor who made the class fun and easy to understand. I thought that maybe I would like to continue studying chemistry and pursue a job in that field. My first year at SWIC was both productive in basketball and in my studies. I then joined Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society where I was a member for two years. The basketball team won second in the nation for junior college women's basketball and my classes went well also. During my second year at SWIC, I was a tutor for math and science. For three summers, I worked as a basketball camp counselor for the college. I worked with a variety of age groups that provided many challenges, but at the same time was greatly rewarding.
Once my time at SWIC was finished, I chose to attend Saint Louis University (SLU) to pursue a bachelor's degree in chemistry. I became involved as an undergraduate in a research project involving surface chemistry with a wonderful professor. In my senior year, I came to realize that a job in the chemical industry was not what I wanted to pursue. I decided I wanted to teach instead, something I had always considered. After graduation, I started working on my master's in chemistry at SLU and began taking classes at Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville for my teacher certification in Illinois.
With any free time I have, I enjoy running, canoeing, traveling, spending time with family and being outside. (Chemistry buildings get very stale after awhile!) My dad is a retired dairyman, while my mom works for a sales company in St. Louis. I married my high school sweetheart, Ryan, in April 2005. There's no one else like him! I have a brother in Iowa who is a mechanical engineer for John Deere. And he is married to a wonderful woman and they now have my first niece and nephew.
When I think of what I have accomplished so far, I realize that I could not have made the progress I have without the help of my family, teachers, friends and God. They have given me the support and encouragement I needed on the days when I didn't want to be in school anymore. My most sincere thanks and love to all those who have encouraged me so far.
I am honored to be KSTF fellow. KSTF has helped me be a better teacher through their meetings and discussions. I am truly thankful for the other fellows in my cohort. They are a great sounding board for teaching ideas. I am currently teaching chemistry, college credit chemistry and agriscience at Freeburg Community High School in Freeburg, IL. I can be reached at kborrenpohl@gmail.com.
Casey O'Hara
Growing up in Portland Oregon, I always had an aptitude and interest in science. At different times I considered a future career as a marine biologist (4th grade), veterinary medicine (8th grade), and doctor (10th grade). I got sidetracked into engineering (12th grade)... And then I was off to Stanford University. The lure of mechanical gadgets and Physics steered me towards Mechanical Engineering, and my love of music steered me into the truly incomparable Stanford Marching Band. Music and engineering kept me very busy through my undergrad years. As a grad student, I mentored freshman groups in a course on technology and society, and realized that working with students was actually kind of fun... After receiving a BS and MS in Mechanical Engineering, I spent several years designing robots and implantable defibrillators. In this capacity, some of my most enjoyable moments were working with groups of engineering students and new engineers. I took this as a sign... In the fall of 2003, I entered the credential program at San Francisco State University to teach high school Physics. Since 2004, I have been teaching Physics and Integrated Science at Carlmont High School in Belmont, CA, about 20 miles south of San Francisco.
Dana Pickering
I grew up in Brandenburg, Kentucky. I participated in softball, cheerleading and dance as I grew up. In high school I was very involved in cheerleading as well as student government. When I was a sophomore I signed up to take chemistry. This is where I realized my love for science. I took three semesters of chemistry because I enjoyed it so much. I decided to major in chemistry in college so that I could continue on to medical school.
I attended Bellarmine University to get a bachelor's degree in chemistry. During my sophomore year of college I realized that medical school was not for me and I was meant all along to be a teacher. I began tutoring at the university and I became a teaching assistant for the freshman chemistry class. These were both wonderful experiences. I decided to attend graduate school and receive my master's of arts in teaching. I discovered the Knowles Science Teaching Foundation just before I was accepted into the graduate program at the University of Louisville. I recently completed my master's degree and received my teaching certificate and I am now employed by Meade County High School which is the school that I attended. I am in my first year as a high school science teacher and I now know that this is definitely the job for me. I love it!
In my spare time I enjoy spending time with my large family and reading. I got married in August 2004 to my high school sweetheart and we are beginning our life together. I am honored to be a member of the third cohort of Knowles Science Teaching Foundation and I look forward to all of the wonderful benefits from the foundation.
Katie Pointer
I have grown up in an extended family that is almost entirely involved in education and this has definitely influenced my own decision to become a teacher. Each of them deeply impressed upon me the importance of education and a life long pursuit of learning. However I am the first member of the family to find my calling within the natural sciences; my relatives have focused on either the humanities or the social sciences.
I became interested in science for the first time during high school due to the outstanding ability of my chemistry teacher. She instilled within me a love of the subject matter and also demonstrated how a teacher can impact the lives of students. I then continued my studies at Westmont College in Santa Barbara, California, my hometown, and graduated summa cum laude with a BS in chemistry in May 2003. My time there both affirmed my love of science and deepened my commitment to teaching. As a student I was able to work as a tutor, teaching and laboratory assistant for general and organic chemistry. I also participated in student research, working one on one with a professor during the summer and the regular academic year. In addition I assisted in the publication of two chemistry textbooks authored by another member of the department. I am grateful to have been able to study under a group of faculty who challenged me academically and encouraged me in my vocational goals.
After graduating I had the privilege of working as an instructor within the chemistry department at my alma mater. I taught a conceptual chemistry course for non-science majors, ran the general chemistry laboratory and maintained the department's inventory. This time confirmed that in spite of its difficulties, teaching is incredibly rewarding. Therefore I spent the next year working on my teaching credential and master's of education at the University of California, Santa Barbara. I finished my degree in July of 2005. I am now in my second year of teaching chemistry at Laguna Blanca School, a private K-12 school in Santa Barbara.
Being the only chemistry instructor I have very few colleagues to collaborate with therefore the KSTF fellows have become my coworkers as well as my mentors and friends. This last year I had the opportunity to teach AP Chemistry in addition to my Honors and Introductory sections. This brought a whole new set of unique challenges however I am excited to continue this program next fall. In addition to chemistry I also enjoy the fine arts and outdoors. During my undergraduate studies I traveled in Europe for a semester where I fell in love with the study of art history. Santa Barbara provides numerous opportunities for spending time outside at the beach, and the mountains are only minutes away so I feel incredibly lucky that I have been able to stay in town.
Holly Polochak
I grew up in the small town of Warren in northwestern Pennsylvania, and I knew at an early age that I was interested in science, from space to nature, and anything else I could learn about. It wasn't until much later that I discovered just how much this interest would affect my life. In my area there was an Eco Meet that brought student groups together from the surrounding area to compete in scientific events that were based on nature. Fifth grade was the first year of eligibility, and I was the only girl that showed any interest. I decided that science was for boys, but my teacher, Mr. Davis, wouldn't let me give up and appointed me as team captain. From that point on I led my team to victory for six of the next eight years.
Throughout high school I took nearly every science class possible and discovered my passion for chemistry. Although I was unaware of the many career possibilities in chemistry, I did know that I wanted to use it for something. Thus, I chose chemistry as my major, and headed off to college at Penn State, Behrend in Erie, Pennsylvania for the next four years. While at Behrend I joined a number of organizations including Theta Phi Alpha and the Behrend Chemistry Club. With these organizations as well as others, I often volunteered to work with youth groups. After two years of college, I began to look at the possible career choices in chemistry. I knew that I didn't want to be in research, and I also ruled out both medicine and law. From where I sat this left teaching and business as my options, and I chose business. This meant ignoring all of my extracurricular work with children, but I felt that business would be able to give me the same fulfillment.
Upon graduation I had earned a bachelor's degree in chemistry with a minor in marketing. Six months after graduation I relocated to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and began working as an Inside Sales Representative, selling chemical laboratory products. I was very excited, and felt that I would be able to help others by solving their laboratory problems and supplying solutions to them. After nearly two years, I discovered that this is not the case. I realized that I should not have ignored my extracurricular work with children, and I returned to school in 2004 to gain my teaching credentials. I attend the Curry School of Education at the University of Virginia as part of their Master's in Teaching Program. While there become an instructor for Upward Bound, where I was able to help students excel in areas with which they have previously struggled. I completed my program in 2006, and have since become a chemistry teacher in Spotsylvania County, Virginia. I’m finally in a career I love, and I can only hope that one day I will influence a student in the same way that Mr. Davis influenced me so many years ago.
Zach Ronneberg
I grew up in the small town of Sebastopol near the coast of northern California. My father was a contractor and much of my childhood was spent in his shop tinkering and building things out of spare materials. By 8th grade I had built everything from a dog house, to an electric winch, to an air-powered canon that could shoot an apple over 500 feet. My love for building, experimenting and discovering how things work is still very much alive today.
I attended Analy High School in Sebastopol where I had a marvelous physics teacher named Jay Goldberg. Mr. Goldberg had a way of making everything interesting and encouraging his students to discover things on their own. This class is where my love for physics came alive. After completing high school I decided that I wanted to see the world and went on a study abroad trip to Florence, Italy for a semester. There, among the sculptures and architecture of the Renaissance, I began to develop an appreciation for an object's aesthetic value as well as its function.
After returning from Florence, I headed down south to pursue my undergraduate degree in Physics at the University of California, San Diego. While a student there I worked as a TA and Tutorial-Session teacher for introductory-level physics courses. Although I had done some tutoring in the past, it was in this setting that I discovered my passion for teaching. During my junior year at UCSD I was lucky enough to enroll in a course called "Teaching and Learning Physics." A portion of the class was spent working in an after school program with low-income minority students. In the program I, along with two other physics undergrads, taught a small group of students about electricity and circuits. At the end of the course the students had learned enough to build radios and strobe lights and discuss how they worked. I learned a lot in teaching this course, but most importantly the experience made me sure of my love for teaching physics.
After graduating from UCSD, I decided to take some time off from school and make sure teaching was really the profession for me. During this time I earned a TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) certificate and spent a semester teaching English to science and engineering students at the Technical University of Sofia, Bulgaria. After returning from Bulgaria, I spent two summers working on the Trail Crew at Rocky Mountain National Park, where I helped build the longest backcountry bridge in the park and maintain endless miles of trail. I spent my time off mountain biking, rock climbing, doing triathlons and jumping into frigid lakes. During the school year I worked as a tutor and substitute high school teacher in northern California.
I spent two years in graduate school at UC Berkeley in the MACSME program, where I earned an MA in education and my teaching credential in physics. I did my student teaching at Longfellow Middle School in Berkeley, as well as El Cerrito High School in El Cerrito. In fall of 2005 I started teaching physics and Earth science at Skyline High School in Oakland, California. In 2006 I taught physics and chemistry at Aragon High School in San Mateo, CA and I am now teaching physics at Davis High School in Davis, CA.
Anne Watson
At bedtime many children get pleasant stories read to them by their parents. I, however, was asked questions like, "Anne! Guess what happens when you go the speed of light?" So I would lay awake thinking about the magnificence of the universe. I decided at the ripe age of eleven to major in physics in college.
Six years later I left my home town of Essex, Vermont for Penn State, main campus. There, I majored in physics, with a minor in math. At Penn State I got to do research and co-author papers with the Astronomy and Astrophysics Department. We developed telescope mask designs for high contrast imaging of stars and extra-solar planets ("High Contrast Imaging with Gaussian Aperture Pupil Masks"; "Imaging Survey for Extra-Solar Planets with Gaussian-Shaped Pupil Masks").
Two summers during my undergraduate career I worked at IBM in my hometown. One summer I operated a Rutherford Backscattering Spectrometer (RBS). The other summer I tested electrostatic discharge (ESD) devices. We published our results to a number of journals and conferences, including International Reliability Physics Symposium (IRPS), ("Deep Trench Guard Ring Structures and Evaluation of the Probability of Minority Carrier Escape for ESD and Latchup in Advanced BiCMOS SiGe Teachnology"; "The Influence of Deep Trench and Substrate Resistance on the Latchup Robustness in a BiCMOS SiGe Technology").
Even though I was very successful in my experiences in both academia and industry, I found it less satisfying than I'd hoped. I wanted a career that had mainly to do with two things: physics and people. My previous work experience did not include enough interaction with people for me. It was my senior year at PSU that I realized I wanted to teach high school physics. Even when I didn't have to, I found myself teaching my non-science-majoring friends about the marvelous secrets of Fibonacci in nature, or the philosophical implications of quantum mechanics.
So, I redirected my energies from research to preparing to teach. At Penn State I tutored an electromagnetism class and I was in charge of a physics lab class. Both experiences were challenging, but very rewarding.
Directly after graduating from Penn State in the spring of '03, I began a M.Ed. program at the University of Vermont in the fall. I'm in my second semester, student teaching at Mt. Abraham Union High School in Bristol, Vermont, and now I'm the one asking questions like, "Guess what happens when you go the speed of light?"
When I am not in a classroom, I'm probably outside coaching Frisbee. I'm also very involved with my church, where I can be found singing, playing guitar or djembe with the worship team. I enjoy sailing with my dad, snowshoeing with my mom, and flying kites with my sister.