Son of one of the early space engineers at Kennedy Space Center
... I was born in Melbourne and grew up on Merritt Island about a mile south of Pineda Causeway. Tropical Trail was quite the paradise for a childhood during the 60's and 70's. We grew all sorts of tropical fruit: papaya, persimmon, avocado, leechi nut, carambola, guava, etc. I even earned enough money selling mangos on the side of the road to buy a ski-boat! Hobby interests have been the individual water sports: surfing, SCUBA diving, water skiing, snowboarding, etc.
I studied marine biology, psychology, science education and skateboarding at Florida State University. Worked a brief time as a field researcher for NOAA and completed masters studies in education at Florida Institute of Technology.
Professionally, in addition to teaching the sciences for 32 years at the secondary level, I have two decades experience as a middle school technology director in a 1:1 computer:student environment. I have provided countless computer application workshops (including 7 years of traveling to nearly 300 K20 educational institutions in 30 different states on behalf of Apple Professional Development. I served as a part of Florida’s Sunshine State Science Standards and Technology Standards expert committees, 8 years of adjunct experience teaching both graduate and undergraduate methods classes for Computer Science and Secondary Science Education.
My most recent recognition was being selected as a
New Media Consortium K12 Ambassador, one of 22 selected internationally. I am also active in the
Apple Distinguished Educator Community, and a professional career highlight was being selected as an
Access Excellence Fellow:
NSTA selected outstanding Biology teachers at the bequest of Genentech Corp. for a three initiative to establish a science educator’s online community in the mid 1990’s.
In 1994, I was recognized as an Access Excellence Fellow in Genetech Corp.’s 10 Million dollar / three year investment in Life Science Education. Our pioneer class was charged with establishing an online community of exemplary lesson plans, resources and expert contacts for science educators. Creating an online community for teachers and by teachers was a novel challenge in 1994, as this was the year that the world wide web really began to really take off. I was quite honored to be invited to return for a month in 1995 as a Genentech Summer Scholar- training the incoming class of Access Excellence Fellows.
I am married to a gorgeous lady and have a 24 year old daughter and an 21 year old son.
Memberships
- New Media Consortium - Lifetime Ambassador
- Florida Association of Science Teachers- Lifetime Member
- SIGraph (Special Interest Group Graphics)
- ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education)
