Initial Publication Date: April 25, 2012

Earth Analysis Techniques Team

Carla McAuliffe, Ph.D., Professional Development Specialist, Educational Researcher, and Curriculum Developer

Dr. Carla McAuliffe is a professional development specialist, curriculum developer, project director, educational researcher, and evaluator at TERC, a non-profit research and development organization based in Cambridge, MA. She has taught junior high life and physical science, high school Earth science and biology, and various instructional technology courses for college. Dr. McAuliffe holds a Ph.D. in Learning and Instructional Technology and has facilitated numerous workshops and professional development experiences for teachers using visualization technologies. She has extensive experience developing instructional materials, including handbooks, workshop guides, classroom lessons, and online Web courses. In addition to serving as PI on the Eyes in the Sky II project, she is PI on the EET Workshops project and Project Renewable Energy Data Investigations (REDI) and Co-PI on the Promoting STEM Career Interest in the Classroom: An Exploratory Study Linking Teacher Professional Development with Changes in Teaching Practices and the Transforming Instruction by Design in Earth Science (TIDES) projects.

Hi Everyone,
Hello from sunny Arizona! Although I work for TERC in Cambridge, MA, I actually live in Tempe, AZ. I am very excited to meet and work with all of you! I look forward to "talking" with you and getting to know you. OK.......a little bit about myself. I love reading, walking, and spending time with the family. I have a 16-year old son (Jacob) who will be a junior in high school, an almost 12-year old daughter (Lily) who will be in seventh grade, and a husband (Joe) who is an ecologist with the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix. I am absolutely crazy about the color turquoise. Welcome to this website!!

Erin Bardar, Ph.D., Professional Development Specialist, Educational Researcher, and Curriculum Developer

Erin_Bardar@terc.edu

Dr. Erin Bardar is an experienced curriculum developer and education researcher. As a NASA Graduate Student Researchers Program (GSRP) fellow at Boston University, she developed the Light and Spectroscopy Concept Inventory for introductory college astronomy, was a major contributor to the NSF-funded Project LITE (Light Inquiry Through Experiments), and received a U.S. patent for a binocular spectrometer. She was an invited presenter at two NSF/NASA sponsored College Astronomy Teaching Excellence Workshops and has made multiple presentations at professional conferences. She is Co-PI on the Eyes in the Sky II project. She was a lead curriculum developer for the EarthLabs project, in which students use satellite imagery, numerical data, and computer visualization software to explore Earth system processes. Erin was also a lead developer for the Investigating Astronomy project and NASA's Citizens and Remote Sensing Observation Network (CARSON) citizen science guide.

Hi Everyone,
Like Carla, I work for TERC in Cambridge, MA...but unlike Carla, I live here too. I love New England in the spring! Outside of work, my world revolves around my 16 month old daughter Rory and my husband Tim. Although sometimes exhausting, we're having a blast seeing the world through the eyes of a toddler. I look forward to working with all of you over the next several weeks.

Rita Freuder, Professional Development Specialist and Curriculum Developer

rita.freuder@gmail.com

Rita Freuder has formal education background from University of Rochester, NY (BA) and Boston University (MA) in mathematics. She has teaching certification in NY State, in high school math and has been certified and taught in New Hampshire high schools as a substitute teacher in math and the sciences. She taught FORTRAN at Boston University for 3 years, during the 1970's and has taught Numerical Methods for the Computer at the University of New Hampshire. Rita was then employed at the University of New Hampshire (UNH) on a NASA project for the Great Observatories on the Gamma Ray Observatory mission for 17 years as a Computer Specialist. She transferred to research in the natural resources group, under the umbrella of the Complex Systems Research Center at UNH with emphasis on computer modeling data and analysis of remote sensing data about 13 years ago. During this period, opportunity to work in education again presented itself in the Education Committee of the Earth Science Information Partners (ESIP). From this affiliation, Rita became involved with TERC and has been an integral part of several TERC projects.

Hello All,
I am in NH, 2 hrs from 6,000 foot Mt. Washington and 25 min from open ocean for a beach day. I enjoy swimming, biking and gardening as summer activities. I have been a grandma for 3 years now, which can take up lots of time. I am ready to learn from you what works in your classrooms with these tools and data.