2008 Biology Teaching Fellows
The Knowles Science Teaching Foundation awarded the first cohort of Biology Teaching Fellowships in June 2008. For more information about our fellows, click on a picture.
Photos on this page by Yischon Liaw, 1000 Views Studios
MELISSA BARGER
"Just because an experiment is ‘hands-on' does not mean it's good. We need hands-on, MINDS-ON learning - experiments that engage the students while also making them think and learn."
HOMETOWN: Houston, Texas
FIELD: Biology
TEACHER PREPARATION PROGRAM: Stanford University
ANTICIPATED DATE OF GRADUATION: May 2009
PROFILE: Born in Houston, Texas, Melissa Barger graduated from Dartmouth College in 2005 with a B.A. in Biology and a minor in Chemistry. That same year she traveled to the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI) with the Dartmouth Volunteer Teaching Program, where for a full academic year she taught tenth grade reading, writing and science at one of the four public high schools in the country. The experience was a turning point for her - "every student had lived on an island for his or her entire life but that was the first time that many, especially girls, really explored it. My students had never before experienced an inquiry-based approach to science class." Melissa consequently decided to leave a career in science research in order to pursue teaching.
Melissa's international experience also includes traveling to Ghana on a Tucker Foundation Fellowship. In Ghana she had the opportunity to explore teaching in a developing country environment and teach pre-schoolers. Melissa volunteers with X-Cel GED Math Tutoring and participates in other projects with Boston Cares. She inherited her love for teaching from her maternal grandmother who is a teacher.
WHY I WANT TO TEACH: "Biology is everywhere, science is everywhere, but without a guide it may be difficult to discover. I hope to unlock the mystery inside and outside of my classroom."
FUN FACT: Melissa enjoys scuba diving and knitting.
ALEXANDRA FUENTES
"With the quickening pace of biological discovery, I want to introduce my students to nascent branches of study, such as nanotechnology."
HOMETOWN: Mayaguez, Puerto Rico
FIELD: Biology
TEACHER PREPARATION PROGRAM: Harvard University
ANTICIPATED DATE OF GRADUATION: May 2009
PROFILE: A 2008 graduate of the University of Pittsburgh with a B.S. in Biological Science and an Honors B.S. in Economics, Alexandra Fuentes was born in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico. While at the university, Alexandra interned at and consequently became a consultant for Magee Womancare International, where she coordinated health care and career workshops for Somali-Bantu refugee girls. She also interned with the Press Secretary of the Mayor of Pittsburgh. She volunteered and classroom assisted at two low-performing schools in the Pittsburgh area, as well as worked with preschoolers as an AmeriCorps member for Jumpstart Pittsburgh. These experiences further confirmed her resolve to pursue teaching and consequently education policy.
For Alexandra, teaching is a family tradition. It was her grandmother's unfulfilled wish to teach and today seven of her family members are teachers, including two aunts, three cousins and Alexandra's mother who teaches mathematics and science in Youngstown City Schools.
Alexandra was a University of Pittsburgh' Honors Scholar and has received Harvard University's Leadership in Education Award. She was a Brackenridge Research Fellow, having developed a research proposal for a case study of Head Start preschools. She hopes to teach in Mississippi.
WHY I WANT TO TEACH: "I feel a deep responsibility to teach. I believe that the intelligence and enthusiasm of our young people is the most significant resource the United States has. I will teach Biology in order to prepare our young people to be leaders in science, because our economy is thirsting for world class innovators and engineers."
FUN FACT: Alexandra is an accomplished pianist. She considered attending a conservatory to major in piano performance before deciding to pursue science.
GEOFFREY ENGLAND GAILEY
"One of the joys of teaching science is the fact that it is so pervasive. Examples abound, and the abstraction of theory can be made real to students through carefully designed and contextually relevant experiences."
HOMETOWN: Rochester, New York
FIELD: Biology, Environmental Science
TEACHER PREPARATION PROGRAM: Cornell University
DATE OF GRADUATION: May 2008
PROFILE: Geoffrey Gailey discovered his twin love of science and teaching while still in high school when he worked as an ecology and conservation instructor at a summer camp. In 2008, Geoffrey graduated from Cornell University with a degree in Biological Sciences. During college he worked as a research assistant at various campus labs. He also volunteered at Ithaca High School and other area schools and community centers. Geoffrey minored in education and began working on a graduate degree in teaching in his senior year. "I love biology because it is so fascinating and teachable. I enjoy teaching because through it, I get to share my love of and excitement for the natural world."
As an undergraduate, Geoffrey was on Cornell's Agriculture and Life Sciences Dean's List and a Howard Hughes Biological Science Summer Scholar. He has long volunteered as an interpretive guide at Ithaca's Cayuga Nature Center. Love for teaching runs in Geoffrey's family: two of his paternal aunts are teachers. Geoffrey is currently teaching 10th grade biotechnology at The Engineering School in Boston, Masschusetts.
WHY I WANT TO TEACH: "There is a tremendous disconnect between researchers, those pursuing the science itself, and teachers who are educating our students about the discipline. By engaging students in the modern understanding of science as a practice, balanced with its typical presentation as a body of knowledge, I believe that I can help create positive change in the current educational system."
FUN FACT: In Geoffrey's varied adventures as a biologist, he has fed a pill to an ill hawk; managed a butterfly garden; been stalked by puma, grizzly bears and rattlesnakes; found dinosaur fossils; photographed rare birds; and seen the fallout of a meteor impact.
JAMES LANE
"Sharing my curiosity and knowledge of the natural world as a teacher is my passion."
HOMETOWN: Arden Hills, Minnesota
FIELD: Biology
TEACHER PREPARATION PROGRAM: Hamline University
ANTICIPATED DATE OF GRADUATION: Fall 2010
PROFILE: Teaching biological sciences has been Jim Lane's dream since middle school. He grew up near 300 acres of wetlands and woods, where he spent the majority of his free time exploring. After high school Jim enlisted in the United States Navy, qualifying for and completing the Naval Nuclear Power program. He served onboard the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln for four years as an analytical chemist and radiation control technician, completing two deployments to the Persian Gulf and Afghanistan. Jim was awarded a Navy Achievement Medal and two Good Conduct Medals for his service. Although his naval experience provided great opportunities, Jim knew his place was not in the belly of an aircraft carrier, but in front of a classroom.
A 2008 graduate of the University of Minnesota with a B.S. in Biology, Jim has worked as a summer camp instructor in St. Paul's Como Park Zoo and an Interpretive Naturalist at Springbrook Nature Center for the past three years, teaching subjects ranging from paleontology to plant biology. Since 2004, he has assisted in banding, releasing and monitoring Saw-whet owl populations in northeastern Minnesota as a research volunteer with the United States Forest Service.
Inspired by his high school biology teacher, whose classroom was filled from top to bottom with taxidermy, bones, and other curiosities, Jim began collecting specimens ten years ago. Today, his collection of objects - from as far away as Australia and as close as his own backyard - is ready to fill his own classroom.
WHY I WANT TO TEACH: "Younger generations are spending more time inside in front of televisions and computers isolated from the natural world. As a teacher I want to rekindle their interest in the natural world around them."
FUN FACT: Jim can make very convincing animal sounds, including squirrel, cricket and crow.
LISA MARTONE
"During my two and a half years in corporate America, I never felt the same sense of purpose that I did when I had the opportunity to teach."
HOMETOWN: Rochester, New York
FIELD: Biology and Chemistry
TEACHER PREPARATION PROGRAM: Nazareth College
ANTICIPATED DATE OF GRADUATION: December 2008
PROFILE: Lisa Martone left a successful career in business to become a teacher. For more than two years she managed diverse product portfolios for Nalge Nunc International and Diagnostic Systems Laboratories, using her scientific background in a sales and marketing capacity. But having taught throughout her undergraduate and graduate career, she found herself drawn back to teaching.
Lisa discovered her talent for the sciences as a high school sophomore, when an inspiring biology teacher made the subject come alive. She now hopes to inspire her own students about biology and the sciences in general, hopefully to motivate some to embark on their own scientific careers.
Lisa earned a B.A. in Biology with a minor in Chemistry from Russell Sage College in 2001, and an M.S. in Biology and M.S. in Public Policy from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 2005. A member of the Tri Beta Biological Honor Society, she has volunteered as a lector with the Blessed Sacrament Church of Rochester and tutored through the Hillside Homework Helps Program.
WHY I WANT TO TEACH: "Ever since I was young, I have been committed to helping and guiding others through volunteer work, coaching, and tutoring. I see teaching as the perfect opportunity to share my passion for science with others."
FUN FACT: Lisa appeared on MTV's "The Grind" in Cancun for 1999 Spring Break.
AMOL PATEL
"A great teacher encourages students to work hard, to learn, and to push themselves so that they can be true life-long learners, in and out of the classroom."
HOMETOWN: Danville, Virginia
FIELD: Biology
TEACHER PREPARATION PROGRAM: University of Virginia
ANTICIPATED DATE OF GRADUATION: May 2008
PROFILE: Amol Patel grew up in southern Virginia and attended a small private K-12 school, where a pair of dynamic high school biology teachers sparked his interest in science. Amol enrolled at the College of William and Mary intent on becoming a deep-sea marine biologist, but soon realized that the world of research was not for him. Instead, he would spark other students' interest in science as a teacher.
Amol graduated from William and Mary with a double-major in Biology and Psychology in 2006 and went on to graduate school at the University of Virginia. His first year in the teacher education program was spent teaching pre-literacy and social skills to at-risk pre-school students through Americorps' Jumpstart program. The next year he served as the primary biology instructor to 137 students, filling in as a long-term substitute teacher. Amol chose to teach evolutionary theory, providing his students with a thematic lens through which to understand biology.
Amol completed his Master of Teaching in Secondary Science Education in May 2008 and begins teaching high school biology this fall at Heritage High School in Leesburg, VA. His awards include Omicron Delta Kappa's Sophomore Man of the Year, the Ewell Award and Algernon Sydney Sullivan Award from the College of William and Mary, and the Virginia Space Grant and Martha Nelson Bradley Fellowship. Fluent in Gujarati, he enjoys soccer, bird watching, and playing jazz, blues and rock on the drums and electric bass.
WHY I WANT TO TEACH: "I want to teach my students about the nature of science: that it is tentative, subjective, not solely based on facts, and always improving our understanding of the natural world."
FUN FACT: On a recent trip to Costa Rica, Amol zip-lined 0.5km while suspended on a cable above the rainforest.
JESSICA RICHARDSON
"I am excited about the more inquiry-based approaches to teaching science. I would like to create assessments that aim to encourage students to create responses, rather than select them from a list of possible answers."
HOMETOWN: St. Paul, Minnesota
FIELD: Biology, Oceanography
TEACHER PREPARATION PROGRAM: University of St. Thomas
ANTICIPATED DATE OF GRADUATION: December 2008
PROFILE: Jessica Richardson began her college career with the dream of becoming a doctor. As a student at Carleton College, where she graduated Cum Laude with a B.A. in Biology in 2006, she devoted herself to the pre-med track and set her sights on medical school. She was also deeply interested in marine biology and biological oceanography. After graduation, Jessica took a job in a research lab at the University of Minnesota where she studied microbes that inhabit teeth cavities.
While working in the lab, Jessica realized that her most meaningful jobs have always involved teaching or volunteering with teenage kids. She decided to combine her love of science with her love of teaching by applying to the Master of Arts program at the University of St. Thomas. While pursuing her Masters, Jessica taught in a junior high school and the experience further confirmed her on a career path in education.
In addition to her passion for teaching, Jessica has a deep commitment to her community. Throughout her life, she has been a coach, a camp counselor and has lead wilderness trips. Jessica is also an active volunteer with groups like Our Savior's Home, a homeless shelter and Clare Housing, a group that helps provide permanent homes for people living with HIV and AIDS.
WHY I WANT TO TEACH: "I am convinced that teaching is the right path for me. I believe it may be one of the most challenging careers and also one of the most rewarding and I am eager for both the challenges and rewards!"
FUN FACT: In 2006, Jessica participated in the U.S. National Collegiate Water Polo tournament.
EMILY ANN SWEET
"I believe that high school students can and should experience relevant and hands-on science learning. One of my goals is to help students take ownership of their biology learning and see how it relates to their lives outside of the classroom walls."
HOMETOWN: Paris, France
FIELD: Biology
TEACHER PREPARATION PROGRAM: University of Washington
ANTICIPATED DATE OF GRADUATION: March 2008
PROFILE: Emily Sweet received a B.A. in Biology and Asian and African Literature and Languages, with a concentration in Chinese, from Duke University in 2005. Upon graduation, she spent nine months in Liberia and Kenya helping rebuild the education system that was destroyed as a result of civil war and strife in these countries. She co-founded an adult education school in Liberia and taught at an elementary school in Kenya. Emily is currently involved in raising support for these schools from the U.S.
Emily always loved science but felt uncertain about her career path. It wasn't until she lived in Liberia that "the value of education took on a whole new meaning" and she decided to pursue education in graduate school.
Proficient in French and Chinese, Emily was born in Paris and moved to the U.S. from France in 1985. At Duke, she was on the Dean's List and was awarded the Freeman Foundation Scholarship for study abroad. Her extensive teaching and tutoring experience ranges from helping students with their homework at a local Boys and Girls Club to teaching English in Hangzhou, China.
WHY I WANT TO TEACH: "I consider it a great privilege to mentor high school students through a part of their development as young adults, critical thinkers and scientists."
FUN FACT: Emily enjoys extreme sports and has jumped off the world's largest bungee jump in South Africa (710 feet).
CALLIE GARRETT VAN KOUGHNETT
"I expect myself and my peers to be able to apply academic knowledge in a hands on- manner-to look for real world connections in everything we learn, and apply it to decisions and everyday life."
HOMETOWN: Loudon, Tennessee
FIELD: Biology
TEACHER PREPARATION PROGRAM: College of Charleston
ANTICIPATED DATE OF GRADUATION: August 2010
PROFILE: Callie Van Koughnett graduated from the University of South Carolina in May 2007 with an Honors B.S. in Marine Science and a minor in Mathematics. She considers herself "an educator at heart." As a student, she worked as an after-school counselor at a local elementary school and was an instructor at the Tennessee Aquarium's camp and Clemson's Camp Sewee. Upon graduation, Callie worked as a naturalist at the Barrier Island Education Program on Seabrook Island. This experience honed her teaching skills while making her realize she missed relating to students on a more academic level. "Seeing a student learn to respect a new animal and its environment for the first time is a rewarding experience, but I believe that I could successfully bring a hands-on approach to a formal biology classroom as well."
Growing up, Callie's parents encouraged her to pursue "life education" through extracurricular programs and her teachers demanded that she apply the same critical thought in the classroom and as in life. These experiences have shaped her educational and career goals as well as her teaching philosophy. Callie hopes to have a similar impact on her students in the future.
Callie is a USC McNair Scholar, US Environmental Protection Agency GRO Undergraduate Fellow, and a member of Phi Beta Kappa. She values the importance of giving back to the community and has participated in Hurricane Katrina Relief programs and worked with underprivileged grade-school children.
WHY I WANT TO TEACH: "I have always wanted to have a rewarding career and there's one thing that has always been a constant reward in my life-education."
FUN FACT: While enrolled at the University of South Carolina, Callie was able to explore the marine world and enhance her academic career through sailing, research, and scuba diving.