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Wired Science TeachersWired Science Teachers

Michael Lampert
Michael Lampert

teaches MicroElectronics, Astronomy and Physics at West Salem High School in Salem, Oregon.

Jerone Mitchell
Jerone Mitchell

teaches AP Computer Science, AP Statistics, and Pre-AP Computer Science at W. T. White High School in Dallas, TX.

Brian McCombs
Brian McCombs

is the Mathematics Chairman at Theodore Roosevelt High School in Kent, Ohio.

Sharon Radford
Sharon Radford

teaches Introductory and Advanced Placement Biology at Paideia School in Atlanta, Georgia.

William Church
William Church

teaches Physics, Physical Science, and Robotics in Littleton, NH.

PBS Teachers
Brian McCombs

Brian McCombs


Brian McCombs has been teaching high school and college level mathematics courses in northeastern Ohio for the past 17 years.  He currently is the Mathematics Chairman at Theodore Roosevelt High School in Kent, Ohio.   He has taught all levels of math, ranging from pre-algebra to AP Calculus and AP Statistics throughout his career.  He earned his B.A. in Secondary Mathematics Education and his M.A. as a Math Education Clinician from Kent State University.

Brian was named the George B Chapman Ohio Mathematics Teacher of the Year by the Martha Holden Jennings Foundation, he was one of 45 Disney Teachers of the Year in 2005, and was a delegate who traveled to Japan to study and compare the Japan Educational System through the Japan Fulbright Memorial Fund Scholarship award in 2006.  He has spoken at several district, county, state and national mathematics conferences, as well as being involved in several curriculum writing projects at the high school and university levels.
 
Brian describes the driving force guiding his teaching as the following belief: students who are actively engaged in a lesson are more apt to remember the concepts being taught than are students who are not engaged.  One way he addresses this is to create authentic and engaging lessons for his students.  Each year he issues a survey on the first day of school regarding student's likes/dislikes and areas of interest. He incorporates these into his projects and curriculum.  As a high school mathematics teacher, one of the greatest challenges is making the content "fun" and relevant to students.  The topics he currently teaches in his pre-calculus, geometry, and statistics courses: logarithms, analysis of polynomial functions, vectors, angles, SAS, ASA postulates, etc., have the potential to be very dry and non-applicable to the student's everyday lives.  In Brian's classroom however, he has found many ways of overcoming this problem.  The pre-calculus course has evolved into a course that is approximately 50% project based, combining the mathematics curriculum with the physics curriculum.  In this course Brian, with the help of the physics teacher, created several projects incorporating mathematics, physics, and students' interests.  These projects include, but aren't limited to:  Barbie-bungee jumping (linear regressions), choosing of a proper cell phone package (piece-wise graphical representations), college tuition savings (exponential growth and logarithms), flight path and distance a baseball travels (trigonometry), and rocket launching (max/min applications for polynomial functions).  In each of these cases the students were able to see ways mathematics could be applied to construction, art design and production, physics, amusement parks, cell phones, etc.  Brian says, "As with any subject area, when a student can see a topic's relevance, he/she will want to learn the material even more."
  
Brian currently resides in Stow, Ohio with his wife Michele.  They have four children:  Katy (13), Matt (10), Anne Marie (7) and Grace (5).

More Recent PostsMore Recent Posts

In Your Classroom: "Paul Kedrosky"

by Brian McCombs     Department: In Your Classroom
02.28.08
Listening to the interview with Paul Kedrosky, I was immediately struck with two ideas I currently use in my classes/department. Although very different in their setup, purpose, and methodology, they are both excellent at producing quality student work.
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In Your Classroom: "The Grapes of Math"

by Brian McCombs     Department: In Your Classroom
02.20.08
"The Grapes of Math" segment brought forward a couple of wonderful math ideas. The first one that I thought of was the use of modeling data. The use of yeast in the fermentation process of making wine is an example of a substance being used to speed something up. How does yeast work? How fast does it work?
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In Your Classroom: "Origami Master"

by Brian McCombs     Department: In Your Classroom
02.14.08
Recently, I was fortunate enough to be awarded an Fulbright Memorial Fund Scholarship to travel to Japan to observe the Japanese school system, its classrooms, its buildings, its teachers, and its students. I was able to see several elementary, middle school, high school, and even university students in their educational settings. At the elementary building, I received a gift of 100 paper cranes, folded by the students of the school I was visiting. This art of paper folding has been around for generations in Japan.
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In Your Classroom: "Space Junkyard"

by Brian McCombs     Department: In Your Classroom
02.08.08
In watching this video, I thought of the wonderful engineering that goes on in constructing many things. Seeing the junk yard and the materials NASA is trying use to replicate or mimic the Saturn rocket, made me think of the movie "Apollo 13" when the engineering leader brought in the square piece of piping, told his staff they had to make it fit into a round hole, and gave them all the items they had to use.
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In Your Classroom: "Laser Archaeology"

by Brian McCombs     Department: In Your Classroom
01.02.08
In my classroom, there are no lasers to determine three-dimensional objects. Unfortunately the monies allotted to school districts just do not cover such costs. However, in our geometry classes we tackle the concept of three, versus two-dimensional objects. When we begin the units covering area, surface area, and volume of geometric figures - you know the ones, formula after formula for kids to memorize - we try investigating their properties and values in a whole new way. Instead of teaching kids all the surface area and volume formulas for all the 3-d shapes, we build our own city.
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In Your Classroom: "Stressed Out"

by Brian McCombs     Department: In Your Classroom
11.14.07
Bridges. We see them everywhere and everyday. They are engineering wonders with loads of mathematics and science behind their structure. From amazingly beautiful and aesthetically pleasing, to ones that are cumbersome looking yet very effective, bridges can be found in many different shapes and sizes. Yet no matter what they look like, they all must serve the same basic purpose. To get something or someone from point A to point B, by going over something that would otherwise make the 'journey' impossible/impractical.
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In Your Classroom: Flotsam

by Brian McCombs     Department: In Your Classroom
10.08.07
As I began writing this blog, I thought about the ramifications of all the trash and debris floating in our oceans and the potential dangers it is causing. The numbers are astounding and alarming at the same time. I began to think of the sheer amount of trash floating in the ocean and the space it must cover. Immediately I thought of what a great estimation problem this could generate for students in classrooms.
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