About Me

I taught chemistry, organic chemistry and the advanced chemistry courses of Advanced Placement and IB Chemistry in high school for many years. I enjoyed my students and they inspired me to continually deepen my understanding of chemistry content through advanced course work and science workshops. In addition, because of my students interest beyond the classroom, I challenged myself to be a part of state and national science education programs. I was a part of the Teacher in Space Program and have worked with NASA educational programs for many years. I have been involved in state and national science teacher certification programs. I received my undergraduate education and chemistry teaching certification from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. I completed my Masters Degree at the UW-Madison during the summers after graduation, while teaching during the school year. I continue to take formal classes and informal workshops at local colleges most years. I am a constructivist thinker and educator. That means I build a my own network of science concepts by connecting new scientific information to information I already know. I enjoy the process of science, gathering data, analyzing the information, then trying to develop theories that can connect the data. I feel that each student needs the time and opportunity to build his or her own scaffold of science knowledge. By building a network of concepts themselves, students will own that knowledge. Once a student develops a network of knowledge, he or she can easily learn new science knowledge and add the concepts to the existing framework. I grew up on a small farm with dairy cows, hogs and chickens. We were organic farmers and field work was done with horses, tractors, and with old and modern machinery. Every day farming held a new science lesson. Most often the science was explained by my parents; predicting weather, planting crops, caring for animals, fixing machinery and repairing fences. Through my early experience farming I developed love of wondering why. Studying science seemed just natural. With my own family I continued to raise and show dairy goats. Currently we operate a horse boarding stable. I still enjoy additional farm work for our stable, like repairing the fence and operating machinery. Professionally, I have enjoyed my work with NASA. I have been to most NASA research facilities. I have seen many items in the research stage, for example cell phones, (yes, there was a time before cell phones) and HD TV. I have worked in research facilities on college campuses and in commercial company research facilities. Research work is slow, meticulous and owe inspiring. The research work gave me a new appreciation for how scientific knowledge actually moves forward. I enjoy science and I enjoy students. My lifes work has been to link the two together.

Education & Certifications

Q&A with Katherine

Tutoring Subjects