RET People

• RET Team

  • 	Alicia Boudreaux LA-SiGMA Outreach/Assessment Coordinator at LA Tech P.O. Box 10348 College of Engineering & Science Louisiana Tech University Ruston, LA 71272 Phone: (318) 257-2603 aliciab@latech.edu
    Alicia Boudreaux received her B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Louisiana Tech University in 2004, and the M.S. in Educational Administration from Baylor University in 2006. She currently serves as the LA-SiGMA Outreach and Assessment Coordinator for North Louisiana.
    	Bety Rodriguez-Milla LONI Institute Scientific Coordinator Center for Computation & Technology Louisiana State University brodrig AT cct.lsu.edu http://institute.loni.org/
    Dr. Bety Rodriguez-Milla is the Scientific Coordinator of the LONI Institute. She earned her Ph.D. from Syracuse University in Physics. Dr. Rodriguez's research interests are in computational physics and condensed matter physics. More specifically, dynamics and statistical mechanics of disordered systems. At the LONI Institute (LI) her primary role is that of the LI Manager. She is also involved with education, outreach and training at the CCT and LONI Institute.
    	Leigh Townsend LA-SiGMA Outreach Coordinator at LSU 232 Choppin Hall Louisiana State University Baton Rouge, LA 70803 lgalat1 AT lsu DOT edu Phone: (225) 578-5381 Fax: (225) 578-3458, Attn. Leigh Townsend
    Leigh serves as Outreach Coordinator for the LA-SiGMA project. Her main duties include planning events and coordinating activities related to External Engagement, Workforce Development, and Diversity. She earned her Master's Degree in Public Administration from LSU.
    	Kathy Traxler CCT REU Coordinator Education, Outreach and Traiing Center for Computation & Technology Louisiana State University +1 225 578 8932 ktraxler AT cct.lsu.edu http://www.cct.lsu.edu/staff
    Kathy Traxler is the Education, Outreach and Training Coordinator for CCT. She earned her Masters degree in Computer Science from the University of Southern Mississippi and taught in the LSU Computer Science department for 10 years before joining CCT. At CCT her primary role is helping faculty develop and implement education and outreach programs benefiting the CCT, LSU, and Louisiana communities.

• Teachers

  • Summer 2011

    • Louisiana State University
      
      

      	Shawn Liner Shawn has been teaching for fifteen years. Currently at Parkview Baptist in Baton Rouge, he also taught for four years at Central High School in Central, Louisiana. In addition he has taught at the Louisiana Virtual School and summers with the LSU Continuing Education. Over the years he has taught several subjects including Advanced Math, Physical Science, Chemistry, Physics, and Engineering, in levels including regular, honors, and AP.
      	Blake Orgeron My name is Blake Orgeron and I am a teacher / coach at Lutcher. I am starting my 20th year of teaching. I have been teaching at Lutcher for the last 8 years. Before that I taught at Berwick High School for 11 years. At Lutcher I teach 11th and 12th grade Physics, Chemistry II, and Chemistry I honors; and I am the head softball coach and assistant football coach. For my research project I am investigating whether the style of the focus question affects the amount of dynamic thinking in a concept map.
      	John Underwood I am originally from a small 1 red light town in Georgia. I went to college in Massachusetts to study the exciting fields of Biology and Sociology. Then I joined Teach For America and came to Louisiana. After 4 years at my placement school I transferred to Livingston Parish. I currently teach 9th graders in Physical Science, Inclusion Physical Science, and Forensic Science. I have had many different jobs from non-profit coordinator, book store manager, ER Tech., to insurance biller but I enjoy teaching best. I enjoy the daily challenges and look for ways to expand my knowledge and my students' knowledge. I look at teaching as a chance to make a difference in others' lives and the world we live in. Teaching is one of the most stimulating jobs you can have since it is never static.

    
    
    
    • Louisiana Tech University
      
      

      	Rob Byrd
      	Chris Campbell I was born in New Orleans and graduated from UNO with a BA in Elementary Education in 2000. We moved to north Louisiana where my wife is from, and I began teaching 5th-grade at a small rural school – Simsboro – in the fall of 2000. I taught 7th-grade math, physical science, and algebra I before getting settled in with middle school science. I currently teach 7th-grade life and 8th-grade earth sciences and coach cross-country and track along with the Science Olympiad teams for grades 7-12. I received my MS in Curriculum and Instruction/Educational Leadership in 2004 from Louisiana Tech. Louisiana Tech's professional development outreach is extraordinary and I have really grown as a teacher with the help of its (Graduate K-12) GK-12 and Research Experience for Teachers (RET) programs. I am currently working with Dr. Collin Wick on simulating oil-water-dispersant interactions. We have several movies created that I will be able to bring back to teaching. I am also very involved in Louisiana Science Teachers Association (LSTA) and have presented at the last 4 conferences. I have been aggressive in seeking out grant funding for hands-on technology driven projects and have acquired over $30,000 through Toyota Tapestry, Captain Planet, Samsung, Weyerhaeuser, and others for literacy integration with iPods, endangered species studies, and research opportunities for students. I am currently working towards National Board certification in early adolescent science and want to eventually pursue a doctorate in science education or education administration. I was recently elected as the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) District VII (Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi) Director for 2011-2014 and look forward to my first science congress meeting this July in Baltimore. I try to spend most of my time with my wife and coaching, swimming, wrestling, taxiing, dancing, and reading to our 3 boys and 1 girl – ages 3 to 12.
      	Jeanine Edgecombe My name is Jeanine L. Edgecombe. I graduated from Louisiana Tech University in March 2010 with my B.S. in Biology Education Grades 6-12. I just completed my first year of teaching at Simsboro High School where I taught biology, environmental science, and biology II. This summer I had the opportunity to work with Dr. Mainardi and her research team on hydrogen storage in the solid state, specifically with metal hydrides.
      	Karen Higuera I just finished teaching my first year of Chemistry at West Ouachita High School. I have made it my goal to help students realize that chemistry may be a challenge but it is something that they can accomplish. I have enjoyed my time in the LA-SIGMA program and can't wait to bring back the knowledge I have gained to my classroom and my colleagues.
      	Jim Kircus I was born in Cheyenne, Wyoming in May of 1963. During my childhood, I had the great fortune of living on or near Air Force bases throughout this great country. I graduated from high school in Vandenberg Village, California, and then enlisted in the Air Force. I served as a pavements specialist for the next seven years, during which I accumulated a ridiculous sum of undergraduate hours in a number of diverse disciplines. Fortunately, before the end of my enlistment, I finally determined what I wanted to be when I grew up: a high school math teacher. By the time I separated from the Air Force in 1988, I earned a B.S. in Education from Southern Illinois University. That fall I started teaching math at Jonesboro-Hodge High School in northeast Louisiana. Seven years later, I transferred to West Ouachita High School (in the same region). I thoroughly enjoy my profession. I look forward to arriving at school every day. This is most likely due to the fact that I have the honor of teaching some of the very best young women and men to be found anywhere on this planet. During my 23 years of teaching, I have been privileged to teach every course in the high school math curriculum. Along the way, I also enjoyed coaching football, softball, track & field, and soccer teams. Finally, I managed to earn an M.S in Education from Louisiana Tech University in 2006. My lovely wife, Shauna, and I live in Calhoun, Louisiana with our children Ciara and Christopher, 19 and 5 years of age, respectively. When I have a few moments of free time, I enjoy maintaining my home and property. Occasionally, I will tie some flies with which to harass the local fish population.
      	Mary Beth McCoy My name is Mary Beth McCoy. I teach 6th, 7th & 8th grade gifted science at Ouachita Junior High in Monroe, LA. I supervise student teachers and am a mentor for new science teachers. I designed and run a LEAP Fair at our school every year for the 8th grade students and their parents, handle the science fair, help with student council, and am a sponsor of our FCS group.I have been teaching science for 18 years. I have a Masters of Education, plus 30, actually plus 72! I love knowledge, and love participating in projects such as the LA-SiGMA RET which I am currently a participant and "teacher ambassador". This is my second RET program in which I have participated. I was trained as a mentor in the last program and since have presented many workshops for science & math teachers for LA Tech University and in my parish. Before that, I had presented at our state science conferences, LSTA. Now I also present at the National conventions as well. The opportunities I have received from my affiliation with the RET projects, have given me a greater understanding of university research, information on cutting edge technology, more content knowledge, confidence in my abilities as a professional, and information I can take back to my students to benefit them for their futures. Hopefully I will be able to encourage more of my students to go to college and major in one of the sciences. When I am not furthering my education or conducting workshops, I enjoy spending time with my two grandbabies, golf, and traveling.

    • Southern University
      
      

      	Brad Burkman I teach mathematics at the Louisiana School for Math, Science, and the Arts. After studying English Literature at Wheaton College (IL), I traveled in China for a few years before going to graduate school in math at SUNY Buffalo. Before this summer I had only programmed in C++ and Perl, but this summer have worked in C, Fortran, CUDA, and Python. My overall goal for the summer is to collect skills and resources to help build the fledgling HPC program at my school. How do we take a student who has run C++ or Python on Windows, and have her run code remotely on several GPU's? How do we lower the barriers to entry (especially UNIX)? What projects would she will find relevant and important enough to make the effort to overcome those hurdles? These are the questions my colleagues and I want to answer. To that end I am learning CUDA, accelerating simplified transport models that simulate weather, and learning some visualization packages. Weather prediction is an HPC and GPGPU application that students (a) understand, (b) believe is not good enough, and (c) believe is worth the effort to improve. I am also accelerating some of my own code, constraint programming searches for optimized sets of math exercises.
      	Robert Dalling Robert Dalling has a Ph.D. in physics and teaches undergraduate physics courses and robotics at the Louisiana School for Math, Science, and the Arts in Natchitoches, Louisiana, which is a tuition-free college for high school students. Dalling's LA-SIGMA project this summer is to develop numerical CUDA-GPU and OpenMP lessons for students in introductory physics courses. Students will then understand that the equations they are currently learning are used by professional scientists and engineers to numerically solve more complicated versions of standard homework problems. For example, where students calculate the force between two particles, the professional puts that same equation into a computer program to calculate the force between thousands of particles: Students and professionals use the same equations. GPU processors are being used today to obtain Teraflop speeds in personal computers. From this moment on, numerical calculations will be done with parallel computing algorithms wherever possible. It is beneficial for students in introductory physics courses to begin learning about numerical methods and parallel computing techniques.
      	Chris Hynes Christopher J. Hynes, Ph.D. in 1991 in Electroanalytical Chemistry from Okla. State University (maybe Les Miles picked up some bad habits from us). I teach various levels of Chemistry: General, Analytical, Organic and Polymers to students at the Louisiana School for Math, Science and the Arts (LSMSA). LSMSA is a 3 year residential highschool located in Natchitoches that was created to address the needs of gifted and talented students from across the state of Louisiana. My research thus far at LSU has been running Leonard Jones potentials of solids, liquids and gases through LAMMPS. Ultimately I'd like to create demonstrations for students showing what happens during phase changes. Included in these demonstrations freezing point depression phenomena. Hobbies of mine: Aviation, guitar, hiking, beer and wine tasting, reading science articles, billiards.

    
    
    
    • University of New Orleans
      
      

      Juanita Cheatham My name is Juanita Cheatham and I have graduated from the University of New Orleans with a Bachelor’s of Science Degree in Science Education. My concentration was Chemistry. I have been teaching for 8th years. Last school year, I have taught Chemistry I, Chemistry II, and Physical Science. The courses that I have taught in the past includes 9th grade Conceptual Physics, 12th grade Physics, Life Science, Senior Math, 9th grade Math and 7th grade English. My hobbies are reading Christian books, writing poems, and spending time with my three beautiful kids and awesome husband. Currently, I am working on research for the Advanced Materials Research Institute at the University of New Orleans. I am also enrolled in a graduate course Chemistry 6007, Experimental Chemistry for High School Teachers. For my research work, I am trying to synthesis single phased nano-sized particles of Mn3O4, manganese oxide, and LiMn2O4, Lithium Manganese Oxide, both of which are nanoactive materials for Lithium ion batteries.

      Brandon Edwards Mr. Edwards is a graduate from Southern University at New Orleans with a B.S in Chemistry. He obtained a Master's Degree in Inorganic Chemistry at the University of Missouri-Columbia. While at the University of Missouri, Mr. Edwards held position as a Graduate Researcher and Instructor. He also was a Graduate Mentor with the Heartlands Alliance Minority Participation program for aspiring undergraduate's majoring in engineering, mathematics and science. He has successfully designed and administers multifaceted science lessons that provide educational direction, mentorship, and one-on-one instruction to middle school students. Currently, Mr. Edwards holds a State of Virginia Postgraduate Professional Teaching Licensure in Chemistry and is employed by Alexandria City Public Schools as a middle school science teacher. Additionally, he facilitates an after school program that assists young men in making positive choices and educates them about life plans, goals and decision making, a program under the direction of The Capital Youth and Empowerment Program Nonprofit Agency.

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"Louisiana has made great investments in IT through its Vision 2020 initiative and through the creation of LONI. Now that we have the resources in place, we need to develop research projects and find the staff who can use the advanced technology in Louisiana to further academics and create more opportunities for business and industry so we can fully capitalize on these investments."
-- Former CCT Director Ed Seidel