Jennifer

Jennifer started her physics career more than ten years ago as a researcher on the Collider Detector at Fermilab (CDF) experiment at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia. Currently, she is the Illinois state representative to the American Association of Physics Teachers, sits on the Association’s national committee for teaching physics in high schools, and is returning for a second year as an appointed Ambassador in the American Physical Society's STEPUP Physics Together, a nationwide program supporting high school physics educators to encourage the pursuit of undergraduate physics. Her perspective on student learning and development is unique in that she has been teaching at both the the high school and college levels for twelve years. This year, Jennifer returns for her ninth year at a small private college-preparatory school in the western suburbs of Chicago. There, she teaches General Physics, Honors Physics, and AP Physics C. Her college teaching assignment consists of a calculus-based electricity and magnetism course for engineers. In her college course, Jennifer has had experience implementing the smartPhysics online course tools and will be expanding their use into her AP Physics C course this coming year. She is particularly interested in how the iOLab can be leveraged beyond laboratory experiments as a casual tool for inquiry, graphical data analysis, and for sparking discussion in her courses.

"Throughout my own education, I learned most effectively when I was comfortable and confident in my environment. My responsibility as an educator is to constantly build the sense of community among my students to form a collaborative learning environment. Through the use of differentiated instructional techniques, students are supported and mentored to employ available resources, thus building the value of academic ownership. Within this supportive yet challenging environment, I am able to demand high-quality outcomes from my students."