Mary Albert

albertm497@aol.com




I teach a 5-6 combo class at Kasuun Elementary in Anchorage, AK.  
I have a BA in Communications from University of Washington, a 
BED from University of Alaska Anchorage, a Masters in Economic 
Ed from University of Delaware.  I have two sons, one in the 
US Navy, the other a Senior at West High here in Anchorage.  
My husband and I have lived in Alaska for 23 years. 

My passions are science, math, technology, my family, Alaska 
and mountain biking.  Every year my class participates in an 
Astronomy simulation game, creates a mini-society, and we play 
the Stock Market Game.  This year we were the first class (Ibelieve) 
in Alaska to play over the net.  We joined U. of Hawaii.  
It was awesome! I am hoping to use the workshop to further 
integrate astronmy into my class projects.

Joe Catanzarite

jcatanz1@aol.com




I teach Astronomy and Astronomy Lab and Physics at Cypress 
College.  My particular interest in the project is to
find ways to involve my students in Astronomy research projects.

John Everhart

everhartj@aol.com


Born in Welcome, NC (1952).
Graduated from North davidson High (where I now teach).
BS in General Science from High Point University.
MAEd from Wake Forest University.
Have taught at North Davidson for 20 years.

Richard Galletti

zubby@aol.com




I am a physics/astronomy teacher in a suburban New York 
(Long Island) school district.  I have been teaching for 
5 years (4 yrs. Earth Science, 3 yrs. physics, and a new Astronomy 
elective for one year.)  My interests include cosmology, astrophysics, 
quantum mechanics, space exploration, motorcycles, entropy, 
sports and the beach.

My particular MicroObservatory interests include use of remote
telescopes in my new (second year) astronomy elective.  I would 
like for my students to access images of their choosing and related 
data in completion of a course project.  For myself, I will 
particularly enjoy "doing" astronomy and learning what I can 
from real astronomers.
Not to mention the big kick I'll get from using the telescopes.

Bob Hillenbrand

no1star@aol.com


I have taught grade school and high school science for about 
20 years total. Classes have included full year astroomy classes, 
space technology and engineering, biological sciences, and physics.  
I was also a planetarium director for nearly 14 years and have 
a background in the space program as a writer, photographer, 
and most recently with NASA as Project Educator for the SOFIA 
Project, X-34, and have worked on Mars pathfinder, Lunar 
prospector, and the Kepler Project as an outreach person.  
I did the "Night of the Comet" internet site for Comet Hyakutake, 
and have also designed several others.  I am a great believer in 
the potentials of the net for projects like this and look forward 
to seeing how we can develop this to continue the great interest 
in astronomy by allowing students to do some REAL astronomy.

Tom Hocking

thocking@aol.com




Tom Hocking is a longtime planetarium professional with 
19 years teaching experience in formal and informal settings.  
Well-known as the Education Coordinator at UNC-Chapel Hill's 
Morehead Planetarium for 10 years, Tom has moved to 
Indianapolis where he taught elementary school during the 
1996-97 school year at an inner-city private school (which 
dumped all the current faculty at the end of the school year, so 
have resume will travel!).  

Tom manages the website for the International Planetarium Society, 
among other computer pursuits.  Tom also runs an internet-mail astronomy 
question/answer service "Dear Starman" at starman@unc.edu.  

Tom is no stranger to CfA workshops, having been a Project 
SPICA agent and a participant in the first MicroObservatory 
workshop as a telescope interface beta-tester.  Tom will be 
"moonlighting" during the first week of the workshop at the 
Childrens Museum of Indianapolis, where he will be faculty at 
an astronomy Day Camp at the SpaceQuest Planetarium, where 
he will probably demo the MicroObservatory Project for the 
kids attending. 

Tom is a big-picture astronomer and likes to use the MO 
telescopes for demonstrating moon phases even when it's 
cloudy, as well as to get pics of planets being studied/explored 
by NASA missions to illustrate the advantages to visiting a 
planet in addition to studying it with a telescope.

Richard H. Maki

rmaki@aol.com


Richard Maki teaches earth science and environmental science 
at The Bromfield School in Harvard, MA, with more than 30 
years of experience in instructing the earth sciences.  Most recent 
on-line involvement was with American Meteorological Society 
project DataStreme "course" in which we used satellite and 
man-made images to investigate weather phenomena being 
presented in a text and accompanying workbook.  Weekly 
assignments were faxed to a teacher leader, corrected and 
comments telephoned to each participant.  Great program!

Presently working with TERC and Princeton University to 
refine equipment and software related to earthquake studies.  
Past involvement at Harvard University included three years 
with Project Image helping to write and field test student 
activities using remotely sensed imagery.  Prior work included 
a couple years, also at Harvard, with Project ESTEEM, again, 
developing and testing activities related to teaching the 
earth sciences.

Sheila McGrath

shem2g@aol.com




I have three years of experience teaching physics at 
various levels, including college physics to 11th and 
12th grade students, and conceptual physics to 9th and 
10th grade students.  In addition, I taught Astronomy to
12th grade students for one year.  I just finished work 
for a masters degree in science education.  
(My undergraduate degree is in physics.)  I will be
teaching college and conceptual physics at Adlai E. Stevenson 
High School in the fall of 1997.  I began using the 
MicroObservatory telescopes in the fall
of 1996 as part of my work study project (while 
completing my masters degree).  I designed several activities 
on the Moon (which can be completed using the 
MicroObservatory telescopes).  

I am interested the MicroObservatory Project, because I find 
it an exciting and innovative means to promote curiosity in 
the wonders of the sky.  In addition, the telescopes offer an 
accessiblity to the sky, which, for most students, does not exist.  
I hope to use the telescopes in various physics
courses in the fall, and in an astronomy course the following year.  

See my web page.

William (Bill)  McKeon

nazin@aol.com




I'm 42 years old and will be teaching 5th grade at the Foxfire 
school in Yonkers N.Y.  My students this year will be the same 
children I taught in 4th grade last year.
  
I am a 1996 graduate of Sarah Lawrence College.  I returned to 
school at the age of 35 after a career in sales. 
 
My interests in MicroObservatory are in some ways simple.  I 
hope to be ableto show (not tell) my students what time is.  
What distance is.    What space is.  And how these are connected.  
I would also like to bring in personal history as it relates to the 
stars.  An example might be what were you doing
when the light from star x started on its way to earth. 

Bruce Mellin

bmellin503@aol.com




BS in Earth Science and Education - Northeastern University
MST in Earth Science - Boston College
Taught Junior High Earth Science for 21 years
Senior Lecturer - University College - Northeastern University 
	 - Boston Mass.
Teach Astronomy and Earth Sciences (23 years)
Consultant to Evening Earth Science Program 
	- Northeastern University
Currently teaching Astronomy and Earth Sciences at the 
Brooks School in North Andover Mass.

In 1989, I accepted a sabbatical position at the observatory  
and became one of the early people to work on the 
MicroObservatory Project.  It has been amazing to watch 
the hardware and software evolve over the past eight years.  
No one could have guessed then that the internet would become 
the interface to link  the MO with the entire country.

Seven years ago when hired at Brooks, I was determined to 
elevate the high school astronomy program into a true 
lab-research science.  Progress towards that goal has been 
made with each passing year.   This fall, the curriculum will 
focus on  image processing techniques and Voyager IIŠ sky models 
that I hope will stimulate individual research projects on 
comets, asteroids or the Moon.  

My students will be testing an  activity  I recently wrote that 
investigates comet velocity and dimensions. The activity will be 
included on  a CD of image processing activities to be published 
by the Center for Image Processing at the University of Arizona.  
Techniques acquired from the activity  will be used by my student 
to investigate any object orbiting in the solar system.



L. Robert Ochs (Rob)

robochs@aol.com




BS Degree from Ohio State University 
(comprehensive science education); 
MA Degree from the University of Connecticut (curriculum); 
MA from the University of Rhode Island 
(Library & Information Science).  

Member of: 
Astronomical Society of the Pacific; 
The Planetary Society; 
Astronomical Society of Greater Hartford; 
Thames Astronomical Society; 
National Science Teachers' Association; 
American Museum of Natural History.  

Attended launch of Hubble repair mission as a guest of NASA, 
saw the 1991 solar eclipse from Hawaii (between clouds), have 
reservations to fly to Aruba early next year for the solar eclipse 
there (and wind surfing).  Own four telescopes: Tele-vue Genesis 
SDF renaissance edition; 10" Meade LX200; 8" Celestron SCT; 3" 
Unitron refractor.   Have 4DTV C-band satellite dish to watch 
interesting events as they happen (like the current 
Pathfinder to Mars mission).   Use Netscape Navigator 3.0 Gold 
to surf the various astronomical sites on the Internet, both at 
home and in my classroom.  Acquired a color LCD and T1 line to 
the internet for use in my classroom.



Michael Richard

mrichardxx@aol.com




Michael Richard is the lead science teacher at Weymouth 
High School, Weymouth, MA where he has taught earth science, 
astronomy and geology, for the past twenty-six years.  He holds an 
MST from Boston College. 

He has been a consulting teacher for a 
number of NSF projects including  Project IMAGE, Exploring the
Environment, Project Spectroscopy, Astronomy Village,
and Project STAR. 

Currently, he is also teaching Earth Science Systems, a
new course he is developing.  Earth Science Systems takes an 
integrated approach to the study of our planet  stressing global 
investigations of its long and short term processes and changes. 
ESS has no textbook in the traditional sense. The computer 
connected to the Internet is used as an electronic textbook for 
the students working in teams.

I plan to have student "research teams" use MicroObservatory 
sporadically for a number of months in my Earth Science Systems 
course. I want to give the students the experience of using a remote 
telescope as a research tool.  I would like to contribute to the 
development of some MicroObservatory activities that require the 
students, working in teams, to collect data (images) and then 
perform some image processing on them in order to answer
a question or solve a problem. I am especially interested in 
Moon related activities.



Cynthia Solomon

cynthia@media.mit.edu




I am the Academic Technology Person for Milton Academy's 
Lower School which includes grades K-6.  I work with 
children and teachers helping them to use
computers to enhance their own learning and teaching.

Children develop multimedia presentations in MicroWorlds, 
a version of Logo, the programming environment that I helped 
develop in the sixties and seventies.  I also help teachers and 
children use the web to gather information for their assorted 
social studies and science projects.

I am not an astronomer, but I get very excited by the possibilities 
that the Web and the MicroObservatory open up to kids  
and to me for learning astronomy by doing astronomy.



Larry Weatherwax

lwaxman@aol.com




Mr. Weatherwax is the astronomy teacher and one 
of the geology teachers at West High.   
He has been teaching in the Anchorage School District
for 20 years  beginning his teaching assignment for 
the ASD at East High in 1977.  His teaching assignments 
have been varied over the years. At East Mr. W started out 
teaching Biology and Algebra.  He began teaching
astronomy in the school-within-a-school alternative 
program at East in 1981.  He also resurrected the geology 
program in 1983 and continued these programs until his 
transfer to West High in 1989. He has a BA in Biology
and Industrial Arts. from UNC, an MA in ecology fromUNC, 
an MA in Marine Biology from Humboldt State College. and 
an MA in Geology from Eastern Montana. He has studied 
astronomy formally and informally for the past 15 years.

At West Mr. W.  began in the astronomy and geology programs 
in 1994.  At this time there was no planetarium or internet 
services at West. Astronomy was primarily a textbook course 
with lots of films and some star parties when the weather 
permitted.

With the construction of the new science wing, a 
planetarium and internet stations  changed the entire 
outlook of astronomy at West.  The course now has 
several component features that these innovations enable.  
Naked Eye Astronomy is enabled by the inclusion of the 
planetarium.   Deep space objects may actually be photographed 
and researched by the students directly over the internet 
through the Harvard Smithsonian MicroObservatory's five 
online telescopes. 

The geology program has also been enhanced by the 
completion of the facilities in the new wing.  The internet 
has allowed us to associate with such programs as 
the Princeton Earth Physics Project (PEPP).  
Mr. Weatherwax was selected as one of the first secondary 
instructors to be awarded a seismic station in his school.  
He spent the summer of 1996 in training to incorporate these 
concepts into the present geology program at West.



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