2003-2004 GK-12 Program Participants

GK-12 Fellows

  Austin Baldwin

Email: jokulhlaup@mail.utexas.edu

Austin received his B.S. in geology at The University of Texas at Austin, where he is now pursuing his M.S. Prior to his graduate studies, Austin worked as a glaciologist in Denali National Park, Alaska, and as a bus driver in Antarctica. His current research focuses on the relationship between tectonics and volcanism in the nose-bleed section of the central Andes.

  Jessica Gordon

Email: jdgordon@mail.utexas.edu

Jessica received her B.S. from Angelo State University, where she studied psychology and biology. She is currently pursuing her master's degree in geography with an emphasis in landscape ecology and biogeography. For her thesis she is integrating remote sensing, GIS, and field work to study how land-use/land-coverage influences forested habitat connectivity within a conservation corridor in northwestern Ecuador. She is also interested in watershed systems, outdoor environmental education, native plants, and teaching gardens.

  Carla Guthrie

Email: cguthrie@mail.utexas.edu

Carla is a native Texan and a Ph.D. candidate at The University of Texas at Austin. Carla has a B.S. in biology with an emphasis in ecology and environmental science from Baylor and an M.S. in biology from Texas Tech University. Her research interests include factors that influence and maintain species diversity in ecological communities, particularly those factors operating in tropical insect communities.

  Marty Maas

Email: mmaas@mail.utexas.edu

Marty is originally from St. Louis, Missouri, and completed her B.A. in Anthropology at the University of Missouri at Columbia. She worked for St. Louis University, School of Public Health, researching lead poisoning in children before entering graduate school at UT. Her research interests include disease ecology with a specific focus on the effects of fungi on plant populations. Marty enjoys reading, traveling, and planning her wedding.

GK-12 Social Science Fellow

  Veronica Chapa

Veronica is a native of McAllen, Texas, in the Rio Grande Valley. She obtained a B.A. in Spanish and Political Science before coming to The University of Texas at Austin for graduate school. Currently, she is working toward a M.A. in Latin American Studies and an M.S. in Community and Regional Planning with an emphasis in economic development. her research is concentrated on public policy in Mexico and the impact of free trade on the border.

GK-12 Teachers

  Adrian Carrales

http://www.austinschools.org/kealing/faculty/carrales/carrales.html
Email: carraleskjh@mail.ev1.net

Adrian has a B.A. in Biology from the University of Texas at Austin. He has worked in the Texas Dept. of Health and in a clinical pathology lab before becoming a teacher in the Pflugerville school district. He currently teaches 7th and 8th grade Astronomy, Earth Science and Life Science in the Kealing Jr. High Magnet Program in the Austin Independent School District.

  Donna Clarke

http://www.roundrockisd.org/rrhs/
Email: donna_clarke@roundrockisd.org

Donna is originally from New Orleans where she attended Tulane and the University of New Orleans. She has worked as a naturalist and has taught science in both Louisiana and Texas. Donna teaches pre-AP Biology, AP Biology and Science Fair at Round Rock High School. She is currently working on a master's degree in Educational Technology at UT Brownsville.

  Melissa Gutierrez

http://www.austinschools.org/crockett/index.php
Email: mgutierr@austin.isd.tenet.edu

Melissa is a native Austinite and graduated from the University of Notre Dame with a B.S. in Biology. She returned to Austin to begin teaching in the Austin Independent School District where she has been for 8 years. Melissa currently teaches integrated physics and chemistry and has established a thriving Aquatic Science program at her alma mater Crockett High School.
 

  Sara Hilgers

http://www.del-valle.k12.tx.us/DVISD/Hornsby/index.html
Email: shilgers@del-valle.k12.tx.us

After 6 years of teaching 4th grade, in the Del Valle ISD, Sara Hilgers realized that teaching about the environment was what most interested her and her students. She went back to school to the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point to earn her Master's in Natural Resources-Environmental Education. When she returned to Austin, she worked for an AmeriCorps program as education, leadership, and counseling coordinator for 4 years. She has been back in the classroom at Hornsby-Dunlap Elementary in the Del Valle ISD. for 6 years, where she teaches 5th grade Science, using the Teaching Garden for many successful experiential, hands-on learning opportunities.

  Lynn Kirby - Coordinating Teacher

http://www.austinschools.org/kealing/faculty/kirby/kirby.html
Email: lkirby@mail.utexas.edu

Lynn earned her B.S. in Geology from the University of Texas in Austin and has worked as an oil and gas consultant and network administrator before starting her tenure as a teacher in the Austin Independent School District. Lynn has many years of experience as a public school science teacher and currently teaches 7th and 8th grade Earth Science and Science Olympiad in the Kealing Junior High Magnet Program.

  Trish Jarrott

http://www.austinschools.org/kealing/faculty/leal/leal.html
Email: trishleal_2@hotmail.com

Trish has a B.S. in elementary education, with a minor in life/earth science from The University of Texas at Austin. She has worked with several UT programs since she started teaching in the Austin Independent School District at Kealing Junior High seven years ago. She currently teaches 8th grade pre-AP science at Kealing.

  Dell Passovoy

http://www.roundrockisd.org/stonypoint/
Email: dell@passovoy.com

Dell holds a B.A. in social science and a M.S. in education from UCLA, and has many years of public school teaching experience in both California and Texas. She has also worked as a science/math coordinator as well as a free-lance science and math writer. Dell teaches regular Biology, pre-AP Biology and Science Research and Design in Biology at Stony Point High School in the Round Rock Independent School District.

  Nancy Poage-Nixon

Email: npoageni@austin.isd.tenet.edu

I received my degree in botany from UT at Austin. I was a volunteer at The Wild Basin            Wilderness Park, Education Director at Austin Zoo Rescue and Rehabilitation, and settled                 into teaching because I love it. I am an amateur entomologist, with a high interest in genetics.

GK-12 Social Science Teachers

  Alex Hendrex

http://www.austinschools.org/kealing/faculty/hendrex/hen2.html
Email: ahendrex@austin.rr.com

Alex graduated from The University of Texas at Austin with a B.A. in history. At Kealing Junior High School (Austin Independent School District), he teachers American History and Amazing Discoveries.

  Lois Pierce

Email: tessier@texas.net

Lois teaches seventh grade Texas history at Covington Middle School in Austin Independent School District.

R.E.T. Teachers

  Joy Killough

Email: Joy_Killough@roundrockisd.org

Joy Killough has a B.A. in Biological Sciences and an M.S. in Biology from the University of Houston-  Clear Lake.  She has taught a wide range of students in a 24 year teaching career from elementary age to college. Shehas spent the last 12 years at Westwood High School and takes great pleasure    in teaching both Advanced Placement Biology and Accelerated Science.
 

  Christine Mihealsick

Email: cmiheals@austin.isd.tenet.edu

Chris Mihealsick has a B.S. in biology from the University of Texas at Austin. She began teaching at Crockett high school after graduating UT, and has taught there for the past two years. Chris teaches IPC, Honors IPC, and established Crockett's first science fair. Her research interests include urbanization effects on the Edwards Aquifer and the interactions between biology and geology.

GK-12 UTeach Interns

  Bill Laird

Email: Billiard@mail.utexas.edu

Bill is a junior pursuing a B.S. in Geology, composite science teaching certification through UTeach and a B.S. in Radio-TV-Film. He is a native to Austin and would like to make scientific documentaries and teach.

  Roland Ramirez

Email: kpnkrunch@mail.utexas.edu

Roland is a senior microbiology major and in the UTeach program. He is originally from the Houston area and has lived in Austin for the past 4 years. Roland is a classically trained musician and enjoys faceting gemstones in his spare time. He would like to one day attend graduate school for either virology or immunology.


  Brigitte Wetz

Email: brig_wetz@hotmail.com

Brigitte was born in New Braunfels but moved overseas at the age of 7 when her father became a Department of Defense Dependents Schools teacher. She is currently pursuing a B.S. in geology, and B.A. in anthropology, and a composite science teaching certification through UTeach. She hopes to obtain a masters in anthropology and concentrate on the functional morphology of primate skeletons.

GK-12 Program Coordinator

  Dennis Ruez

Email: ruez@mail.utexas.edu

Dennis Ruez is originally from Illinois and attended Murray State University (B.S. in geology) and the University of Florida (M.S. in geology) before coming to UT to pursue a Ph.D. His research involves the effects of climate change on fossil mammal communities at varying ecological scales. Dennis has conducted extensive field research in Idaho, Texas, Florida, Kentucky, Kansas, West Virginia, Georgia, and Indonesia.

Principal Investigators

  Jay Banner

Dr. Banner's research interests include the application of field, petrologic, chemical and isotopic methods to studying the chemical evolution of groundwater and ancient oceans, and the control of changing climate on these processes. Modern aquifers and ancient limestones and cave deposits provide excellent records of these processes.

  Barbara McKean Parmenter

Dr. Parmenter's research interests fall primarily within two areas: 1) historical / cultural / qualitative urban analysis, and 2) planning information systems and associated technologies for data gathering, visualization, analysis, and communication. In addition, she works to develop tools and curricula at multiple levels that enable young people (k-12), university students, and local citizens to understand and analyze the history and current condition of their communities, so as to plan more knowledgeably for the future.