BAEER FAIR 33 Presenters
Joe von Herrmann
California State Parks (PORTS Project)
Free Distance Learning with California State Parks
About Joe von Herrmann
Joe von Herrmann has worked for California State Parks for over thirty years. He earned his AA degree in Park Management from West Valley Community College and his bachelor's degree in Biogeography from San Francisco State. Joe was a ranger at Pismo Beach, the San Mateo Coast; San Francisco Bay, the Anza-Borrego Desert and in the Sierra Nevada. For the last ten years Joe has specialized in park interpretation. He is currently an Interpreter III working for the Interpretation and Education Division in Sacramento. He is the supervisor for the Parks Online Resources for Teachers and Students (PORTS) program. Joe has guided every aspect of the PORTS program from its inception to its current status as a premier distance learning and interpretation program serving nearly forty thousand students a year from seven different park venues and using multiple delivery methods and innovative techniques.
Heather McCummins
California State Parks (PORTS Project)
Free Distance Learning with California State Parks
About Heather McCummins
Heather McCummins grew up in California State Parks as her father was a Ranger at Red Rock Canyon State Park and La Purrisima Mission State Historic Park. She received her Masters degree in public history, with a focus on museum education, from CSU Sacramento. Working for the California State Parks Interpretation and Education Division for six years, she currently serves as northern California program coordinator for the Parks Online Resources for Teachers and Students (PORTS) distance learning program. In this capacity she is responsible for training and evaluation of PORTS Interpreters, coordinating scheduling and delivery of PORTS programs to northern California schools, professional development of teachers and administrators in northern California and numerous other aspects of the PORTS program.
Krista Mendelsohn
KIDS for the BAY
Watershed Ecology and Awareness through Scientific Inquiry
About Krista Mendelsoh
Krista Mendelsohn is a Program Director at KIDS for the BAY, and has a Master's Degree in Biological Science Education from San Diego State University, and a Bachelor's Degree in Biology from UC San Diego. She grew up in the East Bay and joined KftB in fall 2007 after working in the San Diego science and environmental education community for many years. Krista is responsible for supervising program staff, and managing and teaching KftB programs. She enjoys swimming, yoga, hiking and traveling.
Deborah Zierten
KIDS for the BAY
Watershed Ecology and Awareness through Scientific Inquiry
About Deborah Zierten
Deborah Zierten is a Program Director at KftB. She is an East Bay native and has a Master's Degree in Environmental Education from Southern Oregon University. Deborah is Spanish bilingual and became interested in environmental education and environmental justice issues through living and working in the rainforests in Ecuador. Deborah is responsible for managing and teaching KftB programs. She enjoys hiking and exploring the East Bay hills, and working in her garden.
Jonah Landor-Yamagata
KIDS for the BAY
Watershed Ecology and Awareness through Scientific Inquiry
About Jonah Landor-Yamagata
Jonah Landor-Yamagata is a Program Director at KftB. He grew up in the East Bay and has a Bachelor’s Degree in Environmental Studies from UC Santa Cruz, where he was a founding member of the Program in Community and Agroecology (PICA). Jonah worked in school garden programs in Berkeley elementary and middle schools before joining KftB in September 2007. Jonah is Spanish bilingual and is responsible for managing and teaching KftB programs. He is an avid gardener and herbalist.
Ted Robertson
Lawrence Hall of Science
Environmental Education Using Learning Stations: You Can Do It Too!
About Ted Robertson
Ted Robertson has led environmental education programs for the past 30 years in every California habitat and has developed science activities at LHS for 24 years. He has written and edited several natural history books for both adults and children. Ted is currently developing a series of natural history manipulative activities for a National Science Foundation funded project in the Eastern Sierra called the Roadside Heritage Project. Ted is an avid birder, botanist, invertebrate biologist, and geologist.
Mary Connolly
Lawrence Hall of Science
Environmental Education Using Learning Stations: You Can Do It Too!
About Mary Connolly
Mary Connolly has developed community outreach programs and instructional
materials in environmental science, biotechnology, and health science at
LHS, the UC Botanical Garden and the Berkeley Lab for over 20 years. She
has directed life science programs for high school students and teachers,
and has extensive experience in the development and teaching of hands-on
science activities for the classroom, museum and community settings. She
is currently developing educational materials for the Roadside Heritage
Project and working in partnership with Bay Area school garden
coordinators to increase environmental education experiences for
school-age children.
Laura Powell
CREEC network
Education and Environment Initiative Model Curriculum Update
About Laura Powell
Laura has eighteen years of experience in education, first as a secondary teacher in social studies, science, and later as a Environmental Education (EE) consultant. Laura has a secondary teaching credential and a Masters in Curriculum, Teaching, and Learning with an emphasis in Environmental Education. She has seven years experience teaching secondary school and has served as the Bay CREEC Coordinator since its inception in 1997, developing a network to link educators to environmental education resources in seven counties in the Bay Area. Aside from her regional work, Laura has worked at the state level to help build the CREEC Network’s Resource Directory of Environmental Education Providers that includes thousands of records. As a teacher she has worked on various curriculum projects on global climate change, marine science, and sustainable agriculture and continues this work as a consultant. She has experience in event planning and coordinating and building networks and professional development opportunities for non formal educators. Laura’s other work includes evaluating and reviewing EE curricula and programs, capacity building for EE, creating a bridge between formal and nonformal educators, and diversifying EE.
East Bay Academy for Young Scientists (EBAYS)
Lawrence Hall of Science
Information Technology and Youth Based Environmental Science
About EBAYS
The East Bay Academy for Young Scientists works to develop critical
thinking skills through scientific research and exploration within low
income communities of color in the cities of Oakland, Richmond,
Emeryville, and San Francisco, California. Much of our research and
curriculum addresses environmental quality within the schools and
communities where we work and gives young scientists access to information
technologies to enhance data collection and understanding of the world
around them.
Sasha Duerr
Creating Natural Color With Kids
Permacouture Institute
About Sasha Duerr
Sasha Duerr has an MFA in Textiles from the California College of the Arts and is certified in Permaculture Design. Her work explores non-toxic, organic, and bioregional fibers and dyes. Sasha presently serves on the faculty at California College of the Arts, creating courses such as “Soil to Studio” that focus on the convergence of ecoliteracy and social practice for textile art and design.
With a love for cross-pollination, Sasha founded Permacouture Institute in 2007. Through Permacouture Institute, Sasha has addressed audiences on ecological dyes and sustainable textiles at universities and school and community garden programs across the country, including developing curriculum for natural fibers and dyes at the Edible Schoolyard. With her background in “slow textiles” Sasha works closely with the Danish Fashion Institute, serving on the Panel of Experts for the Nordic Initiative for Clean and Ethical (NICE), presenting a ten year plan for sustainability for fashion and textiles.
Sasha's forthcoming book, “Cultivating Color: A Sustainable Guide to Making and Using Plant Dyes” (Timber Press/Workman) will be released in the fall of 2010.
Erica Grossman
Creating Natural Color With Kids
Permacouture Institute
About Erica Grossman
Erica Grossman is an artist, currently studying in the Community Arts Program at the California College of the Arts. Erica creates in a variety of mediums, using mostly recycled or natural materials Her work includes textiles made with botanical dyes, photography, clay, and poetry. She has shown work in juried exhibitions at California College of the Arts and work for the Justice for Animals ArtsGuild in Minneapolis, MN. Erica has also studied natural dyes and organic materials through in-depth textile programs in Guatemala.
Her work with the Permacouture Institute, includes research and development with natural dyes and fibers, particularly focusing in plant based fibers and non-toxic dyes. Erica is developing children's educational curriculum for Fibers and Dyes and working closely with the UC Botanical Gardens at Berkeley and the Permacouture Institute this spring in the Garden's public programming for their annual Fiber and Dye Exhibition.
Joanna Snyder
Lawrence Hall of Science
Outdoor Biology Instructional Strategies
About Joanna Snyder
Joanna Snyder is currently codirector of the OBIS Project. Much of her work is a balance of curriculum design and professional development. In addition, she is designing outdoor initiatives for the FOSS Project, an inquiry science curriculum program at the Lawrence Hall of Science that focuses on classroom learning. Her career has been a dynamic mixture of ecological research, classroom teaching and informal education. She has worked at the National Zoo, Sea Education Association, Teton Science Schools and Hudson Public Schools, MA, before beginning her work at the Hall. Joanna currently lives in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.
Gretchen LeBuhn
San Francisco State University
The Great Sunflower Project
About Gretchen LeBuhn
Gretchen LeBuhn is the director of the Great Sunflower Project and an associate professor of biology at San Francisco State University. Her research spans the fields of ecology, biodiversity and conservation biology. She has worked on understanding and conserving plant and pollinator systems from the mountains of Ecuador and the Sierra Nevada of California to urban San Francisco. Her current work on pollinator communities is focused on evaluating the effects of climate change on bumble bee communities. Dr. LeBuhn established one of the most successful citizen science projects, the Great Sunflower Project. This project has over 75,000 volunteers tracking pollinators in their back yards.
Victor Rising
Marine Science Institute
Tidepools: The Slimy and the Spineless 
About Victor Rising
Victor has been teaching for the Marine Science Institute since 2007 in classrooms and aboard MSI's research vessel on the SF Bay. Previously, he has worked as a diver for the Aquarium of the Bay, a naturalist aboard boats heading to the Farallon Islands, and a guide for the Monterey Bay Aquarium among other institutions. He has an extensive knowledge of the marine life and some of the natural history between these areas.
Erica Westly
Marine Science Institute
Tidepools: The Slimy and the Spineless
About Erica Westly
Erica Westly graduated from Hawaii Pacific University with degrees in Marine Biology and Oceanography.
Since then, she has enjoyed assisting in research, working with dolphins and teaching. She has been with the Marine Science Institute for the last year, helping bring science to life for students.
Joel Rosenberg
Lawrence Hall of Science
Energy for Everyone
About Joel Rosenberg
Joel Rosenberg works at the Lawrence Hall of Science as the project manager for SMILE (Science and Math Informal Learning Educators), a collection of free activities from science centers and afterschool programs at howtosmile.org. He has been a classroom teacher (11th grade chemistry), a curriculum developer (9th grade engineering), an education researcher (in Karlsruhe, Germany), a museum presenter (nanotechnology at the Museum of Science, Boston), and a toy designer (Intel and the MIT Media Lab).
Jeff Hogan
Killer Whale Tales Executive Director
Killer Whale Tales
About Joel Rosenberg
Jeff started Killer Whale Tales in 2000 with the goal of bringing the living science of the field into the classroom. Combining his interests of teaching, photography,
science, psychology and theatre, Jeff created a program in which the students came to experience the world as the animals around them do. Jeff brings over twenty years of education experience and eight years of orca research to his position. Jeff also drives the Whale Museum's boater education boat, Soundwatch.
The program is generally geared from 2-12th grades.
Erica Beck Spencer
Lawrence Hall of Science
Take FOSS Outdoors
About Erica Beck Spencer
Erica Beck Spencer is currently codirector of OBIS at the Lawrence Hall of Science. Erica lives in Portland, ME and has been working as an elementary school educator in Portland, Boston, MA, and Cambridge, MA both as a classroom teacher and as a public school elementary science specialist. She has trained thousands of teachers in the FOSS curriculum and co-created a course for Boston Public School teachers with the Boston Schoolyard Initiative about when and how to enhance their science curriculum by teaching science in the schoolyard. The overwhelming success of this course has led to the publication of Science in the Schoolyard Guides which can be found at www.fossweb.com
Pamela Michael
Live and Unplugged: Writing Poetry in the Real World
About Pamela Michael
Pamela Michael, co-founder and director of River of Words organization, will present
the interactive workshop Live and Unplugged: Writing Poetry in the Real World.
As coordinator of the world's largest children's art and poetry contest, Pamela probably
has read more children's poetry than anyone else alive. She personally reads each entry
and helps select winners, along with former U. S. Poet Laureate and ROW co-founder Robert Hass.
Tara Reinertson
East Bay Regional Park District
Audacious Puppetry!
About Tara Reinertson
Tara Reinertson has been a bay area naturalist for 18 years and currently works for the East Bay Regional Park District at Middle Harbor Shoreline Park. Her passion is getting urban students outside to explore nature. Her teaching style is hands-on and creative, incorporating art, exploration, song, puppetry and dance. She has worked for the Headlands Institute, Marine Science Institute and Exploring New Horizons.
Aaron Clegg
Walden West Outdoor School
Jedi Classroom Management
About Aaron Clegg
Aaron Clegg (aka "Red Tail") has worked with children since 2000, as a high school and college physics teacher, K-12 science assembly presenter, and naturalist/field instructor (grades 4-6). He has accumulated a palette of techniques to make management more fun and effective, including structures to use during class and powerful conferencing techniques to use with individuals.
Betty-Ann Kissilove
Great Ball of Fire! A Poetic Telling of the Universe Story
About Betty-Ann Kissilove
Betty-Ann Kissilove lives in San Francisco and has taught English as a Second Language at the City College of San Francisco since 1980. For the past two decades, she has been fascinated by the 13.7-billion-year Story of the Universe, which has deeply influenced her life. This fascination and her lifetime as an educator inspired her to write the epic poem, Great Ball of Fire!, in hopes of making the Universe Story accessible to a wider audience.
