Contact:
Anae Rosenberg
GK12 Program Director
541-346-4762

Special Thanks to the National Science Foundation for their support

Danielle Cass

Inservice Coordinator

My name is Danielle Cass and I am a graduate student with the Institute of Molecular Biology and the University of Oregon. I come to Oregon from Green Bay, Wisconsin where I received my B.S. in German and Chemistry as well as a minor in secondary education. My goals for the future are to receive my PhD in biochemistry and continue in the academic world, either as a teacher or a researcher.
Right now I am in Andy Berglund’s lab studying premRNA splicing and how intron sequences are recognized and spliced out to form mRNA, which can then be translated into protein. The work that I do in the lab ranges from very chemically based synthesis to biological work such as making yeast clones and doing other types of genetics.
Outside of the lab I enjoy what many people in Oregon enjoy, anything active and outside. The water is my best friend and I will take any excuse I can get to jump in and play around, however in winter I spend a lot of time running and “training” for road races. (The training part is really only motivation to get me moving on the really rainy days.)
Finally, the reason that the GK12 Fellowship Program appealed to me was the opportunity it gave me to spend time in the schools, sharing the adventures of science with students. I find students, especially at the grade school level, to be especially fascinated with the world around them and the kits we will be working with give them the opportunity to delve deeper than they ever imagined. In short I am looking forward to working with the students and teachers of Sisters Elementary and Middle School.

Bevin Daglen

Madras Elementary
Madras, Oregon

I am a third year participant in the GK-12 program. My first two years (2004 – 2006) were spent with the incredibly welcoming community of Laurel Elementary School in Junction City. This upcoming year (2006 – 2007) I will begin a new adventure at Madras Elementary School. I am a fourth year graduate student in the chemistry department working with David Tyler on photodegradable polymers. I came here from Boise State University where I received my Bachelors in Chemistry. I am an officer of the Women in Graduate Sciences organization at the University of Oregon. In my spare time, I practice Judo at a local Dojo with my husband Mike.

Scott Ernst

Jefferson MS
S. Eugene HS
Eugene, Oregon

Scott Ernst is in his third year as a graduate student in the Physics Department and first year as a GK-12 fellow. Scott graduated with a B.A. in Physics from Gustavus Adolphus College – a small liberal arts college located in St. Peter, Minnesota – in 2004 and has been pursuing his PhD at the University of Oregon since. His decision to apply for the GK-12 fellowship was based on a broader desire to help improve the quality of secondary and primary school science education programs.

Kathy Hadley

Harrison Elementary
Cottage Grove, Oregon

I am a grad student in the Physics Department. If I had to choose one word to describe myself, it would be “wonder.” I hold a huge sense of wonder about all that I see and an excitement about trying to understand how everything works. I absolutely love to teach. Fundamentally, the concepts of how the universe works are really simple, though translating it into math can be extremely complex. Because of the math, we are not even taught a lot of these concepts until we have reached a high level of school. I would like to change that. I strive to think of ways to describe the real workings of it all in terms that everyone can understand.
My field of research is theoretical astrophysics. I study the stability of differentially rotating, self gravitating systems via computer modeling. Okay, that is the physics terminology. In plain English, I look at systems that rotate with different angular speeds, not like a spinning top that rotates as a solid. These systems are big enough that different parts of them have considerable gravity of their own. Stability analysis means we look at how they change in time. The math gets very complicated so we need to do it using computer programs. Systems like this are found in star formation, galaxies and black holes. In the case of black holes we need to use general relativity. I am especially interested in magnetars. They are neutron stars that have the biggest magnetic fields of anything we can find anywhere, billions of times stronger than the strongest fields we can make on earth. They are extremely dense, so we use general relativity.
Studying these topics means I am good at force and motion, electricity and magnetism, astronomy, and things that seem simple to us like time and space. I love doing the research that I do. I keep a huge sense of wonder about it all. I hope to awaken or keep that sense of wonder in my students while helping them to learn about the basic workings of the universe, including stuff we see in everyday life.

John Harris

Territorial Elementary
Oaklea Middle School
Junction City, Oregon

My name is John Harris. I am currently a fourth year chemistry graduate student here at the University of Oregon, and am working on a project, which studies the degradation of polymers. The goal of this project is to design rubbers and plastics that have superior physical properties, maintain these properties for a longer duration of time, and then quickly degrade into environmentally friendly byproducts.
Besides chemistry, I also have a strong passion for physics, math, and German. My outside hobbies include gardening, the keeping of tropical fish, and weight lifting.

Shannon O'Leary

Juniper Elementary
Bend, Oregon
LaPine Elementary
LaPine, Oregon

Shannon O’Leary is a fourth year physics graduate student working in Hailin Wang’s experimental quantum optics group at the UO. Her hands-on science teaching experience with young students include teaching a summer of Maria Mitchell Exploration classes on Nantucket Island, teaching general science to junior high students for two years in rural Gambia, West Africa with the Peace Corps, and two years as a GK-12 Fellow at the UO. Her interests include women in science, teaching physics and math effectively, and science as a process that is influenced by human bias. Her research involves the study of coherent quantum processes in semiconductors, which will potentially contribute to the ambitious future quantum computer.

Laura Riihimaki

Delight Valley Elementary
Springfield, Oregon

I am a fourth year graduate student in the physics department. I work with Frank Vignola in the Solar Radiation Monitoring Lab, using sunlight measurements from around the Northwest to look at climate change in this region. This is my third year as a GK-12 fellow, and I enjoyed working at River Road/Camino del Rio and Howard Elementary schools in the last two years. Before starting graduate school I spent 10 months volunteering at Pimpollo Home for Children in Juchitan, Mexico. That experience was very important in shaping my continued desire to invest in the future of my community. What I enjoy most about the GK-12 program is encouraging the natural excitement students have about science.

Billy Scannell

Vern Patrick
Elementary
Redmond, Oregon

After a few years away from school, I started back at CSU Fresno pursuing a BA in Natural Science with the initial goal of completing their Math and Science Teaching program. Somewhere along the line I got more and more interested in physics and wound up transferring to the U of O when my wife began the graduate program in Chemistry here. I graduated from the U of O in 2002 with a BS in Physics.
As an undergraduate I was fortunate enough to get a job in the physics lecture demonstration prep room where I received a rather extensive exposure to a wide variety of lecture demonstrations. During that time (and since) I have had the pleasure of helping with several of "Dr. Stan's Science Circus" events as well as the past three Solar Challenges. My research interests lie mainly in the area of the Material Science Institute. I've worked in the Taylor-Linke lab trying my hand at low temperature physics, specifically investigating Fractal Conductance Fluctuations in semiconductor devices. Previous lab experience includes working in the Kevan lab at the U of O where I was able to work with a High Voltage, Low Temperature, Ultra High Vacuum apparatus.

Ginger Shultz

Danebo Elementary
Eugene, Oregon

I graduated with a BA/BS from the Evergreen State College, where I studied Chemistry and Environmental studies. I am in my second year of graduate school and I work in the Tyler lab (chemistry department) studying photodegradable polymers. I hope to pursue a career at a small liberal arts college, where I will be able to focus primarily on teaching. This is my first year as a GK-12 fellow.

Mary Smeller

Lundy Elementary
Lowell, Oregon

My name is Mary Smeller. I am a graduate student in chemistry. I synthesize new solid metal materials in order to investigate their potential as thermoelectrics. A thermoelectric material generates current when a temperature gradient is applied and it generates a temperature gradient when a current is passed through it. The fantastic thing about these materials in devices is that they do not need moving parts in order to generate electricity or to heat/cool an object and, therefore, do not break easily. Currently they are not terribly efficient; however, they are in use in portable heaters and coolers designed for cars and in the power modules of the Voyager satellites among other things. I am participating in the GK-12 program in order to learn to be a better teacher. I would like to teach on the college level when I graduate.