RET People

• RET Team

  • 	Lindsay Gouedy LA-SiGMA Outreach/Assessment Coordinator at LA Tech P.O. Box 10198 T.S. Reese Hall 125 Louisiana Tech University Ruston, LA 71272 Phone: (318) 245-8694 lgouedy@latech.edu
    Lindsay Gouedy, a 2009 graduate of Louisiana Tech University with a Bachelor's of Science in Agricultural Economics, has joined the LaSIGMA family. Mrs. Gouedy brings with her five years of experience as an Environmental Education Consultant. Over the past five years she has served as contractor to the Sparta Groundwater Commission, developing and correlating environmental education curriculum, coordinating education events for students and adults, and coordinating fundraising events. Mrs. Gouedy has also successfully completed similar contracts with Louisiana Farm Bureau's Ag in the Classroom and Louisiana Department of Ag and Forestry. She currently resides in Ruston, LA with her husband Joe and two beautiful boys.
    	Danny Holmes RET Coordinator Center for Computation & Technology Louisiana State University dholm13 AT tigers.lsu.edu
    Danny Holmes is a composer, sound artist, researcher, software developer, and music educator. Danny holds degrees in classical guitar and electronic music composition, and he is currently pursuing a PhD in Experimental Music and Digital Media at Louisiana State University. He has recently presented work at conferences for TMEA, SEAMUS, and ICMC. Danny's interests and major research areas include mobile music, gesture and performance, and music technology in education.
    	Bety Rodriguez-Milla LONI Institute/LA-SiGMA 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 and LA-SiGMA. 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 Scientific Manager. She is also involved with education, outreach and training at the CCT, LA-SiGMA, and LONI Institute.
    	Kathy Traxler CCT REU Coordinator Education, Outreach and Training 1079 Louisiana Emerging Technology Center 110 LSU Union Square Baton Rouge, LA 70803 Center for Computation & Technology +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 2015

    • Louisiana State University
      
      

      	Ingrid Cruz Ingrid Cruz is a dedicated educator for more than 11 years. She holds a master's degree in Natural Sciences from LSU and is currently a doctoral candidate at Southern University's Science and Math Education program. She had developed a multi-level robotics program in middle school consisting of the following courses: LEGO Robotics; Green Design and Technology; RobotC programming with Tetrix; and Marine Robotics. She had coached several robotics teams and sponsored robotics competitions as well. She is an advocate of getting girls engaged in math and science thus, she had been sponsoring the Pink robots club consisting of middle school girls that offers programming workshops to elementary robotics teams. She is a recipient of the 2015 Baton Rouge Area Chamber Excellent STEM Educator Award and Teacher of the Year award twice for Scotlandville Pre-Engineering Magnet. She is currently working on her dissertation entitled "Investigating the Impact of Educational Robotics in Improving the Critical Thinking Skills of Middle School Students."
      	Michelle Hills My name is Michelle Hills. I received my Bachelors of Science in Mathematics with a concentration in Education from Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond. I have been teaching for two years at St. James Parish Science and Math Academy. The past two years I have taught 8th Grade Math, Algebra I, Algebra II, and Geometry. I am currently the St. James Parish High School Teacher of the Year. I thoroughly enjoy seeing students understand math and how it relates to our everyday life. I have been married for four and a half years. I enjoy watching sports and being outside.
      	Shawn Liner Shawn has been teaching for nineteen years. Currently at Parkview Baptist in Baton Rouge, he also taught for five years at Central High School in Central, Louisiana. In addition he has taught at the Louisiana Virtual School and summers with 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. He is also the coach of the FIRST Robotics Team at his school. Shawn earned his BS in Petroleum Engineering from LSU in 1995 and his Masters of Natural Science from LSU in 2012. This is his third year with the RET program. In his previous years he has worked on visualization simulations, and wrote an e-book introducing students to superconductivity.
      	Jane Pablico Jane Pablico is a Physics/Chemistry teacher at Walker High School in Livingston Parish. She has been teaching for a total of nineteen years at high school and college levels. She has taught various subjects that include Physics, Chemistry, Physical Science, Environmental Science, Earth Science and Mathematics. Mrs. Pablico earned her degrees of Bachelor of Science in Physics and Master of Science in Teaching Physics from the Philippines in the years 1996 and 2002, respectively. When she arrived in the United States in 2008, she attended LSU to pursue another master's degree while teaching in EBR Parish. She finished her Master of Natural Sciences at LSU in 2010. Currently, she is a Ph.D.-candidate at Southern University under the Science/Mathematics Education (SMED) doctoral program.
      	Keith Smith Hi, my name is Keith Smith, I'm originally from Baton Rouge, Louisiana. I now live and work in Houston, Texas. I am a science teacher at Forest Brook middle school. I have been teaching science for 17 years in Louisiana and Texas. My pride and joy is my 10 year old daughter named India. I hope to have a wonderful and enriching summer.
      	Lacy Smith I'm Lacy Smith from the Prairieville, LA area. I am a 6th grade science teacher and have been for 7 years. I work at St. Amant Middle school in Ascension Parish where I also coach volleyball and soccer. I just recently reinstated our school's science fair to be able to send students to compete at the regional fair at LSU. I attended LSU for my Bachelor's degree in education and science is my favorite, of course (specifically chemistry)! I am currently studying for my Praxis exam for high school chemistry as I'd love to talk elements all day! I look forward to learning and researching this summer to bring back real world science to my classroom.
      	John Underwood John Underwood is going into his twelfth year teaching in the fall of 2015. He has taught Biology 1, Biology 2, AP Biology, Drama/Speech 2, Emergency First Responder, Earth Science, Eighth Grade English, Environmental Science, Forensic Science, Health occupations 1, Medical Terminology, Physical Science, and Pre-Algebra over the years. John graduated in 2003 from Boston University with a B.A. in Sociology. He completed his Masters of Natural Sciences at Louisiana State University. He is currently entering his final year in the Educational Research and Administration doctoral program at Louisiana State University. John Advises the Baton Rouge Magnet High School DECA, Key Club, Science Olympiad Team, and National Science Bowl Team. When not working, researching, advising, or teaching John enjoys comic books, reading, and cooking.

      Louisiana Tech University
      
      

      	Roland Dante I have been in the teaching profession for 20 years with two masters' degree in Administration and Supervision and in Natural Sciences major in mathematics. I have a Level 3 teaching certificate in mathematics 6-12 grade. I was the Math Department Head at Glen Oaks High School, Baton Rouge. I am married for 20 years and have three children aged 9, 15 and 16 years. I am a Filipino, born in the Philippines.
      	Anna Drago I received my Bachelors of Science in Mathematics in 2000 and a Master’s in Education in 2005 both from Louisiana Technical University. I completed my Master’s +30 in 2008. As an undergraduate, I had the opportunity to work in the physics department on the design and construction of the hodoscope for the E89-09 NSF project that later helped discover the God particle. I also had an opportunity to tour TJNAF to see how our piece of the project would fit with the contributions from our collaborators. I have been teaching for 14 years, mostly middle grades science and a little math. I have spent the last three years teaching business classes for dual enrollment credit at the middle school level. I had another opportunity to work in the physics lab in 2008 with the NERO project, a RET program also at LaTech. In this project, we used the density functional theory to determine the toxicity of metallic clusters on biosystems where I had a chance to work with Dr. Derosa and Dr. Mollier. Last summer I enjoyed working with Dr. Bishop as we went in search of nucleosome A in regards to the MMTV and HMTV viruses. This fall I am looking forward to begin as adjunct faculty in the mathematics department at BPCC. On a personal note, I enjoy running and year around gardening.
      	Seneca Joseph ...
      	Antonio Limjoco I currently teach 5th Grade. I've been teaching for 15 years. 9 years of teaching in the Philippines and 6 years at East Baton Rouge Parish Schools System. My bachelor's degree is in field of Civil Engineering but I got hooked to math education. I would like to keep abreast with our fast changing world and keep students fascinated with math and science. I hope my participation at LASiGMA-RET will point me to the right direction.
      	Mark Magauay I graduated Cum Laude with a degree of Secondary Education major in Chemistry at Philippine Normal University. It has been my passion to teach science and make the subject interesting and meaningful for the students. It is my goal for my students to learn and experience science by letting t them do more hands-on activities rather than the usual lecture "sit and get" method. I'm looking forward to learn more through this summer workshop and I believe that the learning I will get from this will equip me more to be an effective teacher next school year.
      	Mary Beth McCoy Hello, I am Mary Beth Brandt McCoy, and I have been teaching 23 years in Ouachita Parish. In my career as an educator, I have taught grades K, 1, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, & 9. I am currently teaching science to 6th, 7th, & 8th grade GT students, and regular 7th grade students at Sterlington Middle School. I am a Beta club co-sponsor, FCS sponsor, Science Fair Coordinator, grant writer, and tutor. I grew up in East Central Illinois where I received an AS degree in Science. After moving to Louisiana in 1987, I received a BS, and MED from NLU, now ULM, and a plus 30 in Secondary Science from LA Tech. I have participated in and conducted many workshops at the parish, state, and National levels, written various science grade level curriculum, and worked for the State Dept. in a Science testing group. I am a member of LSTA, NSTA, LEEC, LASL, and LACUE. I have had the privilege to work with many wonderful professors and students at a few universities including LA Tech, through NSF funded grants, such as this LA-SiGMA RET project. I am currently working at Tech with Dr. Pedro Derosa and Dr. Daniela Mainardi. My hope is to excite and influence my students encouraging them to pursue STEM careers. I have two children and two beautiful grandchildren I spend as much time with as possible. My other interests include gardening, sports, especially playing golf, and traveling.
      	Dan Rogers I received a B.S. in Biology from NLU (ULM) in 1980. After a military career in Naval aviation I returned to school and received a M.A. in the Clinical Teaching /Emotional Handicaps from the University of West Florida in 1996 followed by an Ed.S. in Curriculum and Instruction from the same university. I taught special education for 13 years in Florida and Louisiana before becoming a science teacher. I have taught middle school science in Bastrop, Louisiana for the past six years. I have been involved in several outside science projects to include NASA Explorer Schools and the Outstanding in the Field ULM project. In my classroom, emphasis is placed on hands on learning to reinforce what is learned from conventional methods. By participating in the LA-SiGMA program, I hope to learn how to develop lesson plans and exercises of this nature.
      	Rose Townsend Rose Townsend has been teaching for 7 years. She is currently teaching 5th grade Math and Science at Mary Goff Elementary in Pineville, LA. She has served as her school's teacher leader and Math data team leader. Her 5th grade students have competed in her annual Science Fair the last 5 years with winners ranging from underwater robotics projects to solar powered windmills. She received both her Bachelor's and Masters of Art in Teaching from Louisiana College while also playing softball for the school as well. Rose is married to Scott Townsend and they have two boys; Tanner, age 7, and Jackson, age 5. This will be her first year participating in the RET program and she is excited to see how this experience will translate to her classroom. Rose and her family are very active in sports and church and compete in many local and state competitions throughout the year.

      University of New Orleans
      
      

      	Karen Marshall Karen Marshall is originally from Kansas City Mo. She moved to New Orleans to attend Xavier University where she received her bachelors degree in Biology Pre-Med with a minor in Chemistry. Soon after Karen enrolled in the Fast Track teaching program at Xavier University to receive her teaching certificate in 7-12 biology and general sciences. Karen is also a graduate of the Leading Educators Program Cohort 2012. Karen has been teaching science for 11 years, 8 of those years right here in New Orleans, La. 1 year prior to Katrina at New Orleans Charter Middle School. She moved after the storm and taught 6 and 7th grade honors in Jackson Public Schools in MS. There she was grade level chair, science bowl sponsor, science challenge bowl coach and Science Department Chair. She spent 3 years at Lake Forest Elementary (A Nationally Distinguished School). There she taught Life and Earth Science and served as Chair of the Science and Engineering Fair. Karen then moved on to Chair the science department at Green Middle School. Here she also Co-Chaired Science Fair and many other school wide science activities including the Annual Science Night. Karen is currently teaching Earth and Space Science and Serving as Science Fair Chair at the International School of Louisiana. She also coaches the science Olympiad Team. She enjoys encouraging students interests in science and engineering whenever and however possible!
      	Aleta Overby
      	Genia Roper I received my B.S. in Biology and a minor in chemistry at Our Lady of Holy Cross College in New Orleans. My degree led to a teaching position at The Academy of Our Lady. I have been teaching high school sciences for four years with concentrations in both regular and honors Physical Science and Anatomy. I have taken on the role of Student Council moderator as well as Science Olympiad moderator. I am always looking to further my education and last year was able to work at Tulane University research program. Academy of Our Lady just moved into a brand new school just before the Mardi Gras holidays so I am looking for new ways to implement new techniques in my new lab.I am looking to another eventful six weeks learning new things!
      	Nadine Stewart My name is Nadine Stewart. I teach 7th and 8th grade science at Emily C. Watkins Elementary. I have 9 years of teaching experience, with 6 of those years at Emily C. Watkins Elementary. I earned my Bachelor of Arts in Elementary Education and Masters of Education in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of New Orleans. I love it when my students have light bulb moments, especially when my questioning gets them there. I am married and have a 13 year old step-son. In my spare time I enjoy traveling, reading, going to movies, and spending time with family and friends. I am a life long learner and looking forward to this new experience. My motto is: There is nothing too hard for God.
      	Joanna Welch

  • Summer 2014

    • Louisiana State University
      
      

      	Debra Miller Borskey Ms. Borskey is an Associate Professor at Baton Rouge Community College (BRCC). She received her undergraduate degree in Computer Science from Southern University and her master's degree from Georgia Institute of Technology. She is currently a Computer Science faculty member in the Division of Technical Education at BRCC. She has participated in the Beowulf Boot Camp for high school students and teachers and also collaborated with LA-SIGMA team members to conduct in class STEM awareness workshops. Debra is excited to gain more experience and knowledge in the summer 2014 LA-SIGMA RET program. The goal of this summer research is to make HPC tools easily accessible to BRCC faculty, students, and East Baton Rouge and surrounding Parish Schools. HPC tools and trainings explored include Unix/Linux Environment, LONI Resources, Parallel Programming, Scientific Visualization, and the LittleFe model HPC. Our mission is to promote HPC use in the classroom and also create a path for unscripted discovery by: Enhancing critical thinking skills, Cultivating interest in research, and Developing concrete programing techniques.
      	Kailyn Brabham I'm from New Orleans, Louisiana and earned my Bachelor's of Science in Mathematics in 2010. I have been teaching Honors Geometry, Honors Algebra II, Advanced Math and Calculus for three years at Destrehan High School in St. Charles Parish. I am currently enrolled in the MNS program to further my content understanding and pedagogical knowledge to continuously improve my classroom.
      	Brad Burkman I teach mathematics at the Louisiana School for Math, Science, and the Arts, the state boarding school for geeks and nerds (www.lsmsa.edu), in historic Natchitoches. I am also the school's Student Research Advisor and liason to NSF and XSEDE, the NSF's supercomputing consortium. I became interested in supercomputing about six years ago, when I started searching large sets for subsets that maximized given criteria. The particular application was finding sets of math homework exercises in which the student would practice the greatest number of techniques in the fewest possible exercises. That work led me to contact the LSU CCT and meet the LA-SiGMA group. This summer I will apply that combinatorics work to a new application, drug docking. I will be working under Dr. Michal Brylinski, porting existing software from CPU's to Intel Xeon Phi coprocessors. I have been part of the RET program and the LA-SiGMA Technologies of Extreme Scale Computing group since 2011. Every summer I have mentored the REU students in how to make effective presentions, including LaTeX but mostly how to speak confidently and concisely. Also during the summer I will work with Kathy Traxler to run the Student Modeling and Analysis Challenge at the XSEDE meeting in Atlanta and attend the Conference on Undergraduate Research meeting in Washington.
      	Melanie Dimler I am a Louisiana native, having grown up in the small bayou town of Lockport, La. I received my B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Louisiana State University in 1998. After working in industry for several years and then spending some time as a stay-at-home mom, I began my teaching career in 2011. I currently teach physics and engineering at Hewitt-Trussville High School, as I work toward my MNS degree at LSU through LaSIGMA. Being able to teach young people is extremely rewarding. It is my passion and purpose. I continually endeavor to be an effective educator, and I am grateful for the opportunity to be a life-long learner who can inspire the desire for life-long learning in others.
      	Harry Henderson Since everyone is starting with "I'm from Louisiana", since I'm not I'll state right now please show me around and give me some suggestions of places to visit and things to do. Harry is from New Mexico, he has been teaching math, science and technology at the secondary level for 12 years plus additional time at the university level before that. After the army he received degrees in geology and pure mathematics from Kent State University, Harry returned to New Mexico for graduate school at the University of New Mexico in planetary science. Harry has taught at traditional schools, charter schools and now a hybrid-cyber school. He has chaired math and science departments and has taught math from developmental to AP calculus, plus most science classes [excluding evil biology], computer modeling classes, robotics and sometimes art. He is also a board member, lead instructor and orgainizer for the supercomputing challenge and assists with the robot academy, hosted from ROBORAVE. Harry has focused his research on computer modeling since the early nineties. He worked with global circulation models [GCMs] as an undergrad and then went on to work with local climate models [LCMs] for his graduate research. He worked with parallel architectures at Los Alamos National Labs and stretch grid models on massively parallel machines for NASA Goddard. More recently he has focused on research sustainability projects and alternatives to the "big bang". He has been building and driving electric vehicles since 2006 and uses them for his main form of transportation.
      	Chris Hynes I received my Ph.D. in Chemistry from Okla. State University in 1991. For the past 20 years I've been teaching various levels of Chemistry: General, AP, Analytical, Organic, and Polymers at the Louisiana School for Math, Science and the Arts (LSMSA). One of the perks of working at LSMSA is that we have the opportunity to offer advanced science electives. Thanks to my participation in LA-SiGMA for the last 3 years and Dr. Les Butler's mentorship, I've developed a new interest/hobby/course called Introduction to Scientific Visualization (Viz) to the LSMSA elective offerings. LA-SiGMA has also opened the doors to participate in various workshops (TACC, Shodor) to develop my Viz skills and conferences (LSTA, BPViz2014) to "advertise" Viz and LA-SiGMA. For the past 2 years I've been able to attract students from various disciplines (math, science and arts) to engage in the various rendering techniques to transform a data set to a visualization. The students develop artistic skills to properly communicate what they want the viewer to "see" in the data and also whether there is secondary information discovered in the visualization. This course has also reinforced and introduced new math and computer science skills and extended the application to humanities-type themes. My goal this summer is to formalize a set of lesson plans (traditional and iPad format) that I use within the Viz course which will then be disseminated via LA-SiGMA's website so that other STEM instructors can explore this Viz material and determine if it fits within their school's curricula.
      	Shawn Liner Shawn has been teaching for eighteen years. Currently at Parkview Baptist in Baton Rouge, he also taught for five years at Central High School in Central, Louisiana. In addition he has taught at the Louisiana Virtual School and summers with 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. Shawn earned his BS in Petroleum Engineering from LSU in 1995 and his Masters of Natural Science from LSU in 2012. This is his second year with the RET program. In 2013 Shawn worked with Dr. Les Butler's research group. Dr. Butler's group works with visualization through x–ray interferometry, a relatively new version of x-ray imaging that work through x-ray refraction instead of the traditional method, which relies on absorption. X-ray interferometry allows for a much smaller dose of radiation to a patient. This method is currently being applied to the storage of hydrogen in metal alloys, and studying why high performance lithium-ion batteries fail after many charge cycles. These studies could lead to a safer x-rays forpeople, safer storage of hydrogen, and better batteries.
      	Jessica Shelton Jessica Shelton received a Bachelor of Science in 2004 from Louisiana State University as well as her Master's Degree in Natural Sciences with concentrations in biology in chemistry in 2004. She was hired to teach life science at Parkview Baptist School in 2007. After two years teaching life science, she moved up to teach chemistry in the high school at PBS where she currently is today.

      Louisiana Tech University
      
      

      	David Andersen My teaching career began in the middle of the school year in Indiana just after I had graduated from college when a teacher passed away from a heart attack. His position was removed the next year and I was the last hired; hence, the first fired. I then taught at a small catholic high school in Indiana and was the math/CS department. Two years there and it closed due to a reduction in the number of students attending. After teaching as adjunct staff at Purdue University at Fort Wayne (by the way, the university did not close down), I landed a job at a community college in Iowa. For five years I taught mathematics and computer science at Clinton Community College. Finally, I took my family to Natchitoches, Louisiana where I have been teaching at the Louisiana School for Math, Science, and the Arts since 1991. One of the courses we offer is Chaos Theory were we use the computer for experiments and lab exercises. Computer graphics to display results and reduce the time for computations when iterating functions should be greatly improved by using GPU programming. I hope to increase my GPU programming skills this summer.
      	Alexander Chen I was born in Shawnee, Oklahoma and I graduated from the University of Oklahoma as a Multi-Disciplinary Studies in Technical Sciences. I currently teach Physics and Astronomy in Forney, Texas to high school juniors and seniors. I am the sponsor of two clubs, the Anime & Comics Club, and the Strategy Club. I am constantly expanding my mind trying to keep up with the ever changing technology and advancements in science. I also am a very strong advocate on students learning science to better our society. I am constantly looking for new ways of inspiring students to learn more science and get into the technical fields.
      	Theresa Do McBride I received my Biology, BS degree in 2010 and MAT degree in 2011 at ULM. I teach middle school science at Holly Ridge Elementary School in Rayville, LA. I love being the BETA sponsor at my school because I can teach my students how to become leaders by serving the community while excelling in school. We compete at the district level in February and the state level in May. I also enjoy competing with my students in the district Science Fair at ULM and state Science Fair at LSU. I have participated in Out Standing in the Field at ULM, ASM Materials Science Camp at UNO, and Teacher Leaders in Lafayette, LA. I look forward to the research opportunities that LaSigma at LA Tech offers and its implementation into classroom instruction.
      	Anna Drago I received my Bachelors of Science in Mathematics in 2000 and a Master's in Education in 2005 both from Louisiana Technical University. I completed my Master's +30 in 2008. As an undergraduate, I had the opportunity to work in the physics department on the design and construction of the hodoscope for the E89-09 NSF project that later helped discover the God particle. I also had an opportunity to tour TJNAF to see how our piece of the project would fit with the contributions from our collaborators. I have been teaching for 13 years, mostly middle grades science and a little math. I have spent the last three years teaching business classes for dual enrollment credit at the middle school level. I had another opportunity to work in the physics lab in 2008 with the NERO project, a RET program also at LaTech. In this project, we used the density functional theory to determine the toxicity of metallic clusters on biosystems where I had a chance to work with Dr. Derosa and Dr. Mollier. On a personal note, I enjoy running and will run my third half marathon this June for Wounded Warriors. In October, I will run my first marathon. This year I will have completed my first half marathon and first full marathon. I encourage those who are even s lightly interested to pursue it if at all possible. :) Epitaph: "The pure mathematician does not study mathematics because it is useful, he studies it because he delights in it and he delights in it because it is beautiful" - Henry Poincare.
      	Donell Evans Hello I am Mrs. Evans and I am currently the head of the science department at Leesville High School. I have been teaching science since 1999-2000 and I am certified to teach Chemistry, Biology, Physics, AP Biology, AP Chemistry, and Dual Enrollment biology. I currently teach AP Biology, AP Chemistry, Biology 1010 and 1020, and general chemistry. I have been teaching advance placement courses for 5 year. I received my Bachelors of Science in Science Education from Northwestern State University in 1999. I received my Masters of Natural Science in Biology, in May of 2013, from Louisiana State University and my Masters of Education in Administration from University of Texas in May of 2013. I am a mother of three amazing young adults all of which attend various universities in Louisiana. My eldest daughter has completed her bachelors and is already enrolled in a graduate program at Louisiana Tech (science of course). My eldest son and son-in-law are both pursuing their bachelors in science at Louisiana Tech. My youngest daughter is pursuing a speech pathology degree at the University of Monroe in Louisiana. I am an avid supporter of all science and extremely dedicated to educational pedagogy. I am, however, a strong supporter of many long standing and still effective teaching strategies that have withstood the test of time. My Master's research focused on several of the time proven techniques. I have been the coordinator for our schools science fair for 5 years and in my time at Leesville High I have had three of my students selected for the International Science and Engineering Fair. I am excited to learn anything new that I can implement into my classroom teaching.
      	Mark Magauay I graduated Cum Laude from Philippine Normal University with a degree of Bachelor of Secondary Education majorin Chemistry. I have taught various science subjects like Environmental Science, Physical science, Human Anatomy and Physiology and Chemistry. We are family of teachers and I am married to Janice Magauay who is also a teacher in Fair Park High School where I am teaching right now. We have two children Mendeleev and Jan Margaux. (You know who Mendeleev is! Lol). I was a Science Club Coordinator from my former school in the Philippines. I pursued my MS CHEM Ed in Ateneo de Manila University in the Philippines. I like doing research and in fact, my thesis was chosen by our university to compete against other countries that was held in Hong Kong. I am looking forward for this exciting program and I hope the RET program could help me entice my students to consider Science as their field when they go to college.
      	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.
      	Bruce Niemi For over ten years I've been a Tulsa Community College instructor teaching social sciences courses including regional geography and western civilization. Recently I joined a TCC early college program for high school students in metropolitan Tulsa pursuing degrees in STEM studies. I've attempted to utilize engaging curriculum and teaching methods to connect students to the role of technology in society and culture. In addition to teaching, I was secretary of the ACTE's Engineering and Technology Education Division that helped forge STEM curriculum. While serving as a representative in the Oklahoma Legislature I was a member the House Committee on Science and Technology and chaired the Joint Legislative Committee on Data Processing and Information Technology. I was published in the Journal of Industrial Teacher Education and have presented at academic conferences. I was graduated with the Ph.D. in occupational education from Oklahoma State University where my dissertation research documented the state agricultural training program for World War II veterans under the GI Bill of Rights. I hold the M.S. degree in adult education from O.S.U. and the B.A. degree in history from the University of Oklahoma. I envision using the research for teachers experience to develop curricula for teaching the philosophy and history of technology.
      	Aleta Overby
      	Dan Rogers I received a B.S. in Biology from NLU (now ULM) in 1980. After a military career in Naval aviation I returned to school and received a M.A. in the Clinical Teaching of Handicapped Children from the University of West Florida in 1996 followed by an ED.S. in Curriculum and Instruction in 1998 from the same University. I taught special education for a total of 13 years both in Florida and Louisiana before becoming a science teacher. I have been teaching science for the past four years at Delta JR. High in Mer Rouge and have been involved in several outside science education projects to include NASA Explorer Schools and the Outstanding in the Field ULM project.

      Tulane University
      
      

      	Brandon Edwards Naturally from New Orleans, Mr. Edwards graduated from Southern University at New Orleans with a B.S in Chemistry in 1998. He went on to obtain a Master's Degree in Inorganic Chemistry at the University of Missouri-Columbia. While at the University of Missouri, he 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. Currently, Mr. Edwards hold a State of Virginia Postgraduate Professional Teaching Licensure in Chemistry. For the last 9 years he has been teaching Earth and Physical Science at Francis C. Hammond Middle School located in Alexandria, VA. As a teacher, he has successfully designed and administered multifaceted science lessons that provide educational direction, mentorship, and one-on-one instruction to middle school students. Additionally, he facilitates CCNA's "Reach and Rise for Excellence" (RARE) an afterschool program that provides students continuous academic intervention.
      	Genia Roper I am from New Orleans, Louisiana and have received a B.S. in Biology with Honors from Our Lady of Holy Cross College. My degree led me to a teaching position at The Academy of Our Lady. I have been teaching for three years with concentrations in Physical Science, Chemistry and Anatomy. I have taken on the role of Student Government moderator as well as Science Olympiad. I am always looking to further my education and am currently seeking a chemistry certification and will hopefully begin a Master's in Biology soon.
      	Michelle Sullivan I received a B.S. in Chemistry from The Ohio State University in 2009. After earning a degree I worked as a part of a research group at OSU studying NMR of various organometallics. In 2011 I received an M.Ed from Wright State University in Chemistry Education. I have spent the last three years teaching Chemistry at New Albany High School in New Albany, Ohio.

      University of New Orleans
      
      

      	Derek Bardell ...
      	Tricia Colson Cacioppo I was born and raised in New Orleans, LA and attended Catholic school for thirteen years. I received a Bachelor of Science from LSU. I am a proud mother of two children under the age of three and have been teaching Physical Science at Mount Carmel Academy in New Orleans for the past seven years. A major part of my teaching career is being the head coach of Science Olympiad. I am planning on pursuing a Master's Degree in Chemistry in the future and look forward to participating in the Advanced Materials Research Institute program this summer at U.N.O. I am very excited about learning new and engaging ways to stimulate my students next school year from participating in the AMRI program this summer in the Physics Lab.
      	Brian Carter I am from Lake Charles, Louisiana but have been living in New Orleans for most of my life. I have earned a B.S. in Chemistry from Southern University at New Orleans in 1995. I taught chemistry and physics in Orleans Parish for ten years before Hurricane Katrina uprooted everyone. I have earned my Masters in Educational Leadership from Southeastern University in 2010 and recently earned my Masters in Natural Science from Louisiana State University in 2013. I have been teaching chemistry (Dual Enrollment and Advanced Placement), Physics and at times mathematics. I am now entering my 19th year of educating young minds to love and appreciate the scientific world. I am married and have two wonderful daughters. I am always finding new ways to improve myself so that I can improve others.
      	Lisa Hartman ...
      	Seneca Joseph ...

  • Summer 2013

    • Louisiana State University
      
      

      	Kailyn Brabham I'm from New Orleans, Louisiana and earned my Bachelor's of Science in Mathematics in 2010. I have been teaching Honors Geometry, Honors Algebra II, Advanced Math and Calculus for three years at Destrehan High School in St. Charles Parish. I am currently enrolled in the MNS program to further my content understanding and pedagogical knowledge to continuously improve my classroom.
      	Brad Burkman I teach mathematics at the Louisiana School for Math, Science, and the Arts. My work in curriculum development, and a course in bioinformatics, sparked my interest in HPC. I am working to build an HPC program at the school, and this fall will focus on digital humanities and 3D printing. I am also the XSEDE Campus Champion at the Louisiana Scholars' College. XSEDE is the "eXtreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment," the National Science Foundation's consortium of major supercomputing facilities. As Campus Champion, I help faculty and students at the four academic institutions in Natchitoches take advantage of XSEDE resources and training. My summer research focused on domain and task decomposition and domain reduction and reconstruction for parallel solutions to a combinatorics problem. I worked on both SuperMike-II and Stampede. In addition to my own research, I mentored several people. I worked with an RET participant from New Mexico, Creighton Edington, on parallel techniques on the LittleFe cluster. He just got one, and I brought mine to our office. I worked with an RET participant from Baton Rouge Community College, Debra Borskey, developing parallel skills to incorporate into her introductory CS courses. I mentored one of my recently-graduated students, Eric Dilmore, on parallelizing code on the Intel MIC. I worked with one of my high-school students, Katherine Prutz, who was working this summer under a CCT faculty member, Xin Li. She parallelized sections of his code on SuperMike-II using parallel libraries to calculate eigenvalues of large matrices, giving significant speedup. Eric and Katherine gave a poster at XSEDE'13.
      	Melanie Dimler I am a Louisiana native, having grown up in the small bayou town of Lockport, La. I received my B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Louisiana State University in 1998. After working in industry for several years and then spending some time as a stay-at-home mom, I began my teaching career in 2011. I currently teach physics and engineering at Hewitt-Trussville High School, as I work toward my MNS degree at LSU through LaSIGMA. Being able to teach young people is extremely rewarding. It is my passion and purpose. I continually endeavor to be an effective educator, and I am grateful for the opportunity to be a life-long learner who can inspire the desire for life-long learning in others.
      	Karim Elkholy Dr. Elkholy received his Ph.D. from Louisiana State University in Mechanical Engineering in 2007. He is now the Engineering Program Manager and Assistant Professor in the STEM Department at the Baton Rouge Community College. In this EPSCoR grant, he collaborates with LSU engineering and mathematics faculty to develop modules to train community college students to use sophisticated materials research instrumentation, assists with the Beowulf Boot Camp for high school students and teachers and facilitates the participation of BRCC students in the research experiences for undergraduates (REU) programs focused on computational and experimental materials science.

      Louisiana Tech University
      
      

      	Rod Abcede Mr. Abcede is a graduate at the University of the Philippines in Diliman main campus where he earned his master's degree in Microbiology specializing in Biotechnology on April 2000. After obtaining his undergraduate degree in zoology, he opted to pursue his postgraduate studies rather than going to med school mainly due to family financial incapability and his strong desire to learn new things. He developed his first love in research while working as graduate research assistant for two years in UPD. He was a recipient of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) research fellowship from 1998 to 1999 and worked at the Genetic Engineering Division of the National Research Institute of Brewing in Hiroshima, Japan wherein he and his thesis adviser published his study in an ISI refereed journal. After obtaining his master's degree, Mr. Abcede decided to stay in the Philippines for two years where he first started his teaching career at the University of Santo Tomas in return for his 2-year postgraduate scholarship from the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) wherein he served as adviser and examiner in several undergraduate theses in department of biological sciences. During those years, he attended and presented papers in several local and international symposiums and conferences. Mr. Abcede is a registered microbiologist of the Philippine Academy of Microbiology and a lifetime member of the Philippine Society of Microbiology. He worked as QA-Microbiologist in middle east for two years in pharmaceutical and soft drinks company in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, respectively. After working in industries, Mr. Abcede pursued his passion in teaching and accepted the challenge to teach high school science in China among Chinese, Korean, and Japanese ESL learners for four years in two international schools. Mr. Abcede started his teaching career in United States on 2008 from a very humble beginning at Lake Providence Jr. High of the East Carroll Parish instead of joining East Baton Rouge School District. He endured the tough challenges for two years in helping to uplift the LEAP score of the school that was under the corrective measures of LA Dep. of Education. Currently, he just finished his third year teaching Chemistry, Physics and Physical Science at Wossman High School in Monroe City. Mr. Abcede has already attended several summer workshops for in-service teachers at Dillard Univ., LA Tech, and ULM including the prestigious Howard Hughes Medical Institute. He added that joining the LA-SIGMA RET 2013 is another exciting, challenging, and unforgettable experience in his career. He is very excited to work and gain a lot of understanding and knowledge in molecular modeling of proteins and nucleic acids under the tutelage of Dr. Tom Bishop.
      	Theresa Do McBride I received my Biology, BS degree in 2010 and MAT degree in 2011 at ULM. I teach middle school science at Holly Ridge Elementary School in Rayville, LA. I love being the BETA sponsor at my school because I can teach my students how to become leaders by serving the community while excelling in school. We compete at the district level in February and the state level in May. I also enjoy competing with my students in the district Science Fair at ULM and state Science Fair at LSU. I have participated in Out Standing in the Field at ULM, ASM Materials Science Camp at UNO, and Teacher Leaders in Lafayette, LA. I look forward to the research opportunities that LaSigma at LA Tech offers and its implementation into classroom instruction.
      	Aleta Overby
      	Holly Payton My background includes 19 years in the healthcare industry. I decided to make a change in my career and received an alternative certification in middle school math. This past school year I completed my sixth year at I.A. Lewis. I. A. Lewis is a sixth grade, stand alone, school. I taught math my first year and the past four years I have taught physical science. I love physical science because of the integration of math into so much of what we do in the classroom. I believe my purpose as a teacher, is to guide students towards autonomy, mastery, and purpose. I try to place students on a path of self-directed learning, where they ask questions and investigate the answers. LA-SiGMA is accomplishing so much more than I dreamed. It is providing me with a real world application and providing me with so many ideas that I’m having difficulty narrowing my focus. This research has been a great reminder of the importance of a strong foundation in math, science, and writing. I feel it's provided me with a better picture of future requirements for my students. I hope that I inspire my students this year with the new vision I will be bringing back to the classroom.
      	Dan Rogers I received a B.S. in Biology from NLU (now ULM) in 1980. After a military career in Naval aviation I returned to school and received a M.A. in the Clinical Teaching of Handicapped Children from the University of West Florida in 1996 followed by an ED.S. in Curriculum and Instruction in 1998 from the same University. I taught special education for a total of 13 years both in Florida and Louisiana before becoming a science teacher. I have been teaching science for the past four years at Delta JR. High in Mer Rouge and have been involved in several outside science education projects to include NASA Explorer Schools and the Outstanding in the Field ULM project.
      	Leif Sherry

      
      
      Southern University
      
      

      	Chris Hynes I received my Ph.D. in 1991 in Electroanalytical Chemistry from Okla. State University. For close to 20 years I've been teaching various levels of Chemistry: General, Analytical, Organic, Polymers, and thanks to LA-SiGMA I now teach Introduction to Scientific Visualization. My gifted and talented students are from all over the state of Louisiana where they go to school and live at the Louisiana School for Math, Science and the Arts (LSMSA). LSMSA is a 3 year residential high school located in Natchitoches. This is my 3rd year at LA-SiGMA. Last year under the mentorship of Dr. Les Butler, I was able to create and teach a Scientific Visualization course. This summer I hope to develop it in much more detail and create an iBook format that can operate on an iPad interface with the possibility of having an HPC backend to handle the more calculation intensive tasks. Hobbies of mine: beer and wine tasting, eating, guitar playing, hiking, , reading science articles, billiards, and when I can afford it, aviation. The description of this summer's research: 1) Discover ways that ImageJ, VisIt, Mathematica and Sage Notebook can be used as teaching tools. These software packages, most of which are freeware, can be very useful for visualizing large sets of complex numerical data. From the images that are rendered, qualitative and quantitative information can be extracted. A variety of rendering methods and measuring tools available in the software were investigated with the hope that they could reinforce STEM concepts using practical applications. 2) Discover new teaching formats for presenting visualization instructional material. An iPad and iBook Author were experimented with as a alternative teaching format for visualization. 3) Two of the overall goals of my faculty mentor’s lab is the use of X-ray tomography to image changes that occur in samples of flame retardant dispersed in a polymer sample and imaging defects that occur with multiple charging/discharging of lithium batteries. My role is the development of instructional material that would teach research scientists how to render, manipulate, interpret and extract information from these tomography data sets. Also I am developing a highschool course in Visualization that will train future scientists the usefulness of these Visualization software packages.
      	Reco Knowles I received my Masters in Computer Science and Ph.D from Southern University in Science and Mathematics Education in 2001 and 2012 respectively. I am presently a faculty member in the Computer Science department at Baton Rouge Community College (BRCC), where I teach the introductory and advance courses in C++ and an introductory course in Unix/Linux. Prior to obtaining my present position, I was a Sr. Software Engineer and Program Manager for Acatel-Lucent Technologies in Lisle, Illinois. While at Acatel-Lucent, I led teams from China and India in the development of testing and management applications for the company. I enjoy teaching and molding young, eager minds. I am excited about this opportunity and look forward to this learning opportunity with the LaSigma RET program.
      	John Underwood I have been teaching for 9 years in Louisiana. I have had a lot of teaching experiences in many different fields. I am a former Teach For America Corps member and I am originally from Georgia. I completed my undergraduate degree at Boston University. I have taught Earth Science, Environmental Science, Biology, AP Biology, Pre-Algebra, Physical Science, Forensic Science, Health Occupations 1, Emergency First Responder, Medical Terminology, Speech, and Drama. Ironically I am also certified to teach Social Studies 7-12, but have yet to do so. I have a masters degree in Natural Sciences from LSU and I am currently continuing my Masters' thesis research. I am looking at the way students learn Physics and f there are preconceived ideas that serve as sticking point in the learning process. I have been looking at this occurrence in both high school and college students for the past three and a half years. The persistence of students' holding onto a misconception has not fully been studied. This study examined Force Motion Conceptual Evaluation (FMCE) data from 1600 high school and college students. Students show a commonality in the ideas they held at both the high school and college level but did not show learning gains. Students did demonstrate a high level of purposeful choice selection as demonstrated by a 40-60% persistence in choice maintenance. The study has great implications on the methods used to examine student responses for use in instructional design. I think that the research offers a window into test score interpretation that has not been attempted in prior studies. At the high school level I see this as being a very useful tool as teachers set learning goals, bench marks, and plan out the year's lessons.

      Tulane University
      
      

      	Debra Miller Borskey Ms. Borskey is an Associate Professor at Baton Rouge Community College (BRCC). She received her undergraduate degree in Computer Science from Southern University and her master's degree from Georgia Institute of Technology. She is currently a Computer Science faculty member in the Division of Technical Education at BRCC. She has participated in the Beowulf Boot Camp for high school students and teachers and also collaborated with LA-SIGMA team members to conduct in class STEM awareness workshops. Debra is excited to gain more experience and knowledge in the summer 2013 LA-SIGMA RET program. The goal of this summer research is to make HPC tools easily accessible to BRCC faculty, students, and East Baton Rouge and surrounding Parish Schools. HPC tools and trainings explored include Unix/Linux Environment, LONI Resources, Parallel Programming, Scientific Visualization, and the LittleFe model HPC. Our mission is to promote HPC use in the classroom and also create a path for unscripted discovery by: Enhancing critical thinking skills, Cultivating interest in research, and Developing concrete programing techniques.
      	Creighton Edington I teach science, mathematics, and engineering at the School of Dreams Academy (SODA) in Los Lunas, New Mexico. Most of my time goes towards academic competitions (BEST Robotics, Science Olympiad, Botball, FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC), Supercomputing Challenge, and science fair). My overall goal for the summer is to develop the knowledge, skills, and ability to help my students with the school's newly acquired Little Fe unit. I am hoping to learn enough UNIX and OpenMP/MPI to allow me to get students started in the right direction with HPC. We have a team signed up to compete in the Student Cluster Challenge at SC13 in Denver this November. I was born and raised in New Mexico. From 1985 to 1993, I served in the navy. I graduated from Penn State in 1996 and have been teaching since then – except for a two year break. During that break, I worked with NGOs in West Africa on education projects and microloans for small business. Starting this fall, my oldest daughter, Allyson, will begin working on her Master's in music at Carnegie Mellon. My youngest daughter, Amanda, will start at Mansfield University. My wife, Kim, is a Language Arts teacher at the School of Dreams Academy.
      	Brandy Perkins-Howard I received my BS in Chemistry from Southern University in 2002 and my MS in Analytical Chemistry from Purdue University in 2005. After earning my masters degree, I worked for Airgas Specialty Gases as an operations manager and plant auditor. In 2009 I had a career change and began teaching high school chemistry in Baltimore, Maryland. There I was the Science Fair Coordinator and Freshman Class Advisor. Currently, I am teaching Earth Science at Parkforest Middle School. I accepted a position to teach high school Chemistry in the Fall of 2013. I am truly excited about teaching chemistry again in the fall. I am also very excited about participating in the LA-SIGMA Summer program.

      University of New Orleans
      
      

      	Clare Davis-Wheeler Clare Davis-Wheeler has been a member of the Science Department at Ben Franklin High School since 2006. In addition to developing the AP Environmental Science program for Franklin, she has taught Chemistry and Biology and has served as the Science Fair Director and Science Olympiad coach for the past seven years. She was the recipient of the 2008 Drake Award for Excellence in Chemistry Teaching from the American Chemical Society and presented a seminar at the 2013 ACS conference in New Orleans. Davis-Wheeler is a two-time recipient of the Teacher Mentor award from the Greater New Orleans Science and Engineering Fair and has attended the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair with her students for the past three years. She received her bachelor's degree in Environmental Science from Tulane University in 2003 and was recently awarded a Board of Regents Fellowship for doctoral studies in Chemistry at the University of New Orleans. She will begin full-time Ph.D. work at UNO in the fall of 2013. Davis-Wheeler is an also accomplished classical Soprano and singer/bass player for the all-female rock band Curie, who released their self-titled debut album in February of 2013. She is excited to begin her research with La-SIGMA at UNO this summer and plans to maintain an active role in promoting excellence in STEM education while pursuing research through her doctoral fellowship at UNO.
      	Shawn Liner Shawn has been teaching for seventeen years. Currently at Parkview Baptist in Baton Rouge, he also taught for five years at Central High School in Central, Louisiana. In addition he has taught at the Louisiana Virtual School and summers with 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. Shawn earned his BS in Petroleum Engineering from LSU in 1995 and his Masters of Natural Science from LSU in 2012. I worked with several branches of Dr. Butler's research this summer. First I worked on an iBook that is designed to give a good introduction of tomography to students and industry. Secondly, I worked with the iPad collaboration of tomography data workflow. I was also involved with programming chargers to maintain a predictable charge and discharge pattern during imaging. Dr. Butler's group works with visualization through x–ray interferometry, a relatively new version of x-ray imaging that work through x-ray refraction instead of the traditional method, which relies on absorption. X-ray interferometry allows for a much smaller dose of radiation to a patient. This method is currently being applied to the storage of hydrogen in metal alloys, and studying why high performance lithium-ion batteries fail after many charge cycles. These studies could lead to a safer x-rays forpeople, safer storage of hydrogen, and better batteries.

  • Summer 2012

    • Louisiana State 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.
      	Karim Elkholy Dr. Elkholy received his Ph.D. from Louisiana State University in Mechanical Engineering in 2007. He is now the Engineering Program Manager and Assistant Professor in the STEM Department at the Baton Rouge Community College. In this EPSCoR grant, he collaborates with LSU engineering and mathematics faculty to develop modules to train community college students to use sophisticated materials research instrumentation, assists with the Beowulf Boot Camp for high school students and teachers and facilitates the participation of BRCC students in the research experiences for undergraduates (REU) programs focused on computational and experimental materials science.

      Louisiana Tech University
      
      

      	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, and I began teaching at 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 the students. I try to be involved in Louisiana Science Teachers Association (LSTA) and have been aggressive in seeking out grant funding for hands-on technology driven projects, and have presented at the local, state, and national levels on grant writing and science Olympiad. I am the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) District VII (Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi) Director from 2011-2014, and will be serving as an Einstein educator fellow at NSF - Industrial Innovation and Partnerships (IIP) for 2012-2013. My wife - also a very busy science teacher - and I have to split time between coaching, swimming, wrestling, taxiing, dancing, and reading to our 3 boys and 1 girl – ages 4 to 13.
      	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.
      	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
      
      

      	Tom Henson My name is Tom Henson and I will begin my 11th year of teaching at River Parishes Community College in August, 2012. I attended college in Charleston, S.C. at the College of Charleston. I received a B.S. in Chemistry in 1970. I then went to graduate school at Georgia Tech where I completed a thesis on 18-Crown-6 Ether chemistry and received a M.S. in Chemistry in 1974. I also could have obtained a M.S. in Textile Engineering with specialization on Polymer Chemistry but I never applied. I left school to begin my career in industrial R&D at Dow Chemical Company in December 1975 at the Plaquemine site. I completed my career after 27 years by retiring in July 2001 as a Research Leader. I then started my current career of teaching Introductory Chemistry in August 2001 at River Parishes Community College. In the spring semester of 2011, a two semester Organic Chemistry course was added to my teaching load.
      	Chris Hynes Christopher J. Hynes, Ph.D. in 1991 in Electroanalytical Chemistry from Okla. State University (I still wish we would have gotten to play LSU or Alabama). 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. This is my 2nd year at LA-SiGMA. Last year under the mentorship of Dr. Randall Hall I was able to use HPC to create some visualizations for my chemistry students involving phase changes, shear deformation, and impact dynamics. This year I'm working with Dr. Les Butler helping to create an i-book visualization "course" that can operate on an i-pad platform. Since I have an i-pad and several of my students use i-pads, this project opens up the possibility of me being able to offer a Visualizations course at LSMSA. Hobbies of mine: Aviation, guitar, hiking, beer and wine tasting, reading science articles, billiards.
      	Jonah Njenga

      
      
      Tulane University
      
      

      	David Andersen My teaching career began in the middle of the school year in Indiana just after I had graduated from college when a teacher passed away from a heart attack. His position was removed the next year and I was the last hired; hence, the first fired. I then taught at a small catholic high school in Indiana and was the math/CS department. Two years there and it closed due to a reduction in the number of students attending. After teaching as adjunct staff at Purdue University at Fort Wayne (by the way, the university did not close down), I landed a job at a community college in Iowa. For five years I taught mathematics and computer science at Clinton Community College. Finally, I took my family to Natchitoches, Louisiana where I have been teaching at the Louisiana School for Math, Science, and the Arts since 1991. One of the courses we offer is Chaos Theory were we use the computer for experiments and lab exercises. Computer graphics to display results and reduce the time for computations when iterating functions should be greatly improved by using GPU programming. That is the focus of my research this summer at RET.
      	Rayla Hunt Hi, I am Rayla Hunt. I was born in Shreveport, Louisiana, but raised in Baton Rouge Louisiana. I attended Baton Rouge Magnet High School and am a proud Bulldog, graduating with the class of 2001. I am a 5 time State Champion and national ranked runner. I received a track and field scholarship to Southern University A&M College earning a bachelors degree in Biology and two SWAC Championships. I earned a teachers certification in middle school Science and have been teaching Life and Earth Science since 2009. I enjoy athletics and working out on a regular basis. I am engaged to Norwood Davis of Dallas, Texas and will be marrying on October 28, 2012.
      	Greg Sollie I have completed my 26th year teaching physics and my 16th year at Catholic High School in Baton Rouge. I taught 10 years of chemistry and physics in West Baton Rouge Parish prior to CHS. I am co-moderator of our FIRST Robotics team which is 2 years old and moderator of the Habitat for Humanity Youth Build for CHS. Also, I have been a high school basketball official for 32 years. Over the years, I have been involved with teaching teachers through the Math-Science Partnership (MSP) and have presented various topics at local, regional and national science conventions.

  • 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