Family camping, a Bio major at Carleton College, nuclear medicine research in Houston, and an M.A. in Biology from Rice University introduced me to the world of life. Twenty years of teaching biology and anatomy/physiology, international travel, and curriculum work with raptors, Lake Superior, whales, prairies, medicine, neuroscience, and marine aquariums confirmed my passion for all things biological. Newly retired from teaching, I appreciate this opportunity to work in CK-12's innovative arena of biology education.

My educational back ground includes a PhD in physics and a Master of Science in Physics and mathematics. I have been teaching physics, mathematics and astronomy for over 20 years at several colleges and private schools in different states. I currently live with my wife and boy (3.5 years) in Alexandria, VA.

Dale Baker started her academic career studying anthropology and archaeology, but later took up work as a substitute teacher while pondering her future. This was a fortuitous decision because she discovered that when students were presented with engaging science activities, they were motivated to learn. She earned an EdD in science education from Rutgers University. Dale is a full professor at Arizona State University, where she teaches courses on research design, equity and assessment issues in science education, and courses that help teachers infuse engineering concepts into their curriculum.

John A. Benner has an M.A. in chemistry from The University of Texas at Austin. He has worked as an analytical chemist, a science editor and content consultant, and a freelance writer. His past projects include chemistry, physics, and physical science textbooks for Holt, Rinehart and Winston and several titles in the True Books series for Children's Press. John's work for CK-12 is his first contribution to open-access publishing. He currently works as a computer programmer in Austin, Texas.

David Bethel has been a lifelong student of science, mathematics, and philosophy. He completed the "Great Books" program at St. John's College in Santa Fe, NM, in 1995. He has also studied physics, astronomy, biology, math, and the history and philosophy of science at Brown University and the University of Texas at Austin.

Dr. Bewick received her B.Sc. in Chemistry from Mount Allison University. She then went on to complete a Ph.D. at Princeton University where she studied the electronic properties of organic crystals. Currently, Dr. Bewick is at the University of Tennessee where she hopes to use game theoretical models to learn more about how immune systems fight off viruses and bacteria.

Jennifer Blanchette is a science writer and researcher. Her research is focused on the role of fatty acids in the development of the model organism, C. elegans. She earned her B.A. in biology from Oberlin College in 1994 and received a doctorate in biological chemistry from the University of Michigan in 2004.

Dr. Jean M. Brainard is a freelance health and science writer and curriculum specialist living in central Ohio. She received a master's degree from the Harvard School of Public Health and a doctorate in biomedical anthropology from the State University of New York at Binghamton. A former university professor, Dr. Brainard has written hundreds of textbook chapters and encyclopedia articles on a diversity of subjects, as well as numerous professional publications based on her own research.

Sarah Brockett has worked in educational publishing for seven years. After receiving her BA in English Literature from the University of Pennsylvania, she began her editorial career at Pearson Education. She left to pursue work as a freelance writer and editor, and has since participated in projects for all ages and in all disciplines. These include revising the curriculum for Philadelphia public schools, writing AP test guides, contributing encyclopedia entries, and producing various state-oriented math books. She recently earned her Master's Degree in U.S. History from American University in Washington, DC.

Maria Catalina teaches mathematics and science at Mar Vista Middle School in the Sweetwater Union High School District. She began researching curriculum in 1995. As the worlds first Teacher to Space Ambassador she turns "Eyes to the Skies" and brings Space down to Earth. Space travel and the universe drive her standards based curriculum as she introduces her students to their technological futures. Miss Catalina knows that our students are the first space faring generation.

Victor Cifarelli (Ph.D., Mathematics Education, Purdue University) is an Associate Professor of Mathematics and the Coordinator of the Mathematics Education Program in the Department of Mathematics at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. His doctoral research focused on the role of reflective abstraction as a learning process in mathematical problem solving. His current research examines how solvers reflect on and test the viability of their evolving intuitions, and transform their initial hypotheses and conjectures into actual solution activity. Dr. Cifarelli has presented his research at AERA, PME, and PME-NA. His articles have appeared in the Journal of Mathematical Behavior, Focus on Learning Problems in Mathematics and the Proceedings of PME and PME-NA. Over the past several years, he has been an active contributor to SIG/RME as a reviewer and presenter of research papers. In addition to his research interests, Dr. Cifarelli has demonstrated an on-going commitment to the professional development of mathematics teachers. He has taught a variety of undergraduate and graduate mathematics and mathematics education courses including mathematics for elementary education majors, mathematics education for elementary and middle school education majors, and graduate mathematics courses for secondary mathematics teachers. He has co-directed a pair of projects for elementary, middle, and secondary grades mathematics teachers under the Eisenhower Professional Development Program and also has conducted numerous in-service workshops for middle grades and secondary mathematics teachers.

Dr. George Collison is a nationally known science and mathematics educator. He is one of the founders of the Virtual High School(tm) and lead author of the Seeing Math(tm) video case studies distributed by PBS Teacherline. He has authored courses in algebra, calculus, and physics. George was invited by USAID on several occasions to help science and mathematics planning and write curricula in Africa. His passion lies in crafting clear, highly engaging presentations that build careful bridges from concrete experiences to abstract concepts.

Don Cummings received his Ph.D. in English in 1965 from the University of Washington. He taught English at Central Washington University in Ellensburg, Washington from 1960 until 1996, when he retired as Professor Emeritus of English. For about twenty-five years he directed and was the principal instructor in Central's Academic Skills Center, where college students were taught developmental writing, spelling, reading, and mathematics. He also served for seven years as chairman of the English Department and later as Dean of the College of Letters, Arts, and Sciences. In 1970 he started writing The Basic Speller, an inductive approach to English spelling for younger students, working with third and fourth graders in the Seattle area. In 1988 the Johns Hopkins University Press published his monograph American English Spelling. In 2003 he established dwcummings.com, a website for spellers, teachers of spelling and reading, and other students of English words. For the last thirty-five years his primary scholarly interest has been English spelling - its system and logic, its history, and how best to teach it to younger and older students. After several decades of frustration with conventional publishers, so reluctant to deal with new approaches that cannot promise a fat bottom line, he's very interested in and enthusiastic about open-access and collaborative publishing.

James H. Dann was born and raised in San Francisco. He attended Lowell High school and went on to UC Santa Barbara where he received a B.S. in physics. James then went to grad school at UC Santa Cruz where he joined Alan Litke's research group at CERN, the largest particle physics lab in the world. James worked at CERN, in Switzerland, for 4 years where his research earned him a Ph.D. in particle physics. James then moved back to San Francisco and lived with his oldest son Aaron, while teaching high school in the city. After seven wonderful years teaching high school, James went on to work as a Senior Engineer for GMW in Silicon Valley. James has since returned to his true passion of teaching high school at Menlo School and lives with his wife, Nisha, and second son Ashaan in the Bay Area.

I graduated in physics and mathematics from Carnegie Mellon U; MA from UCLA; secondary credential from SF State. I worked as an electronic engineer and ship-board radar technician in Seattle, and as a teacher for 22 years in High Schools in Hayward and Sacramento. Courses I have taught include physics (AP also), chemistry (AP also), astronomy, calculus, algebra II, precalculus and integrated science. I was a Scimat fellow in Florence (1992), a Department Chair for both science and math, and taught physics lab sections for UC Davis. I am presently a faculty member at Chapman College (teaching prospective teachers for math and science) and a consultant for the Natomas USD. I wrote a number of original labs which have been shared, as well as designed new courses in science and math, now used by teachers at several schools. I co-authored People's Physics Book, an open-access book, available through the UCSC Institute of Particle Physics and CK-12. I am committed to the idea of collaborative work in science/math texts and lab books.

Prior to developing content for the CK-12 Foundation, Danielle DeLancey served as an analyst with a leading educational research firm, a professional development provider, a curriculum developer, and as a middle-grades teacher through the Teach for America program. She earned her master's degree from Harvard University with extensive coursework in statistical analysis and economics.

Dana Desonie's set of eight books on environmental issues entitled "Our Fragile Planet" has just been released by Chelsea House. Booklist named "Oceans: How We Use the Seas" as one of the top ten environmental books for youth for 2007! Besides environmental science, Dana also writes and edits in the fields of geology, oceanography, and biology. With a doctorate in oceanography and a trip to the bottom of the ocean in the research submersible Alvin under her belt, she now lives in the Sonoran Desert with her neuroscientist husband and their two children.

Jonathan Edge currently teaches chemistry and physics at Arleta High School. He has been a teacher with the Los Angeles Unified School District for 9 years, and has previously worked as an environmental chemist. He is a 1984 graduate of Whittier College, and in his spare time enjoys bicycling and building model airplanes.

Kenny Felder is a math and Physics teacher at Raleigh Charter High School. He maintains a Web page with explanations of math and Physics topics at http://www.ncsu.edu/felder-public/kenny.

I am currently a programs consultant for High School in Nova Scotia but spent ten years teaching chemistry. I spend most of my time in-servicing teachers in the pedagogy surrounding science and math teaching and taking care of my two beautiful boys.

Craig Freudenrich, Ph.D., is a freelance science writer. He earned a B.A. in biology from West Virginia University and a Ph.D. in physiology from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. He has over 25 years experience in biomedical research, science education, and science writing.

Tirupalavanam G. Ganesh is an Assistant Dean for Information Systems in the Mary Lou Fulton College of Education at Arizona State University. He has bachelors and masters degrees in computer science and engineering and a PhD in interdisciplinary studies. He is the recipient of an NSF award from the Information Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers (ITEST). His research interests include STEM education; exploring and harnessing the potential offered by emerging technologies in the communication of research; use of graphical data analysis techniques with large-scale data sets; and the use of visual data in educational research.

Andrew John Gloag was born in the North East of England and graduated from Oxford University in 1992 with a Bachelors degree in Physics. He obtained his PhD from Strathclyde University, Scotland in 1996 and worked in fiber-optics research until he moved to San Diego, California in 1999. He currently teaches physics and mathematics at High Tech High School in San Diego.

Anne Marie Gloag was born in Bucharest, Romania and moved the US when she was 14. She graduated Old Dominion University with a major in applied mathematics and obtained a PhD in applied mathematics from Northwestern University in 1996. After working in the UK for 2 years, she moved to San Diego, California. She has been teaching mathematics and chemistry at High Tech High for 7 years.

Niamh Gray-Wilson is a freelance science writer and editor living in Austin, Texas. She hails from Galway, Ireland and graduated from the National University of Ireland, Galway with a bachelor's degree in microbiology.

Randy Green is a freelance editor and writer of mathematics textbooks and ancillaries. She has a Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics from the State University of New York at Albany and a Master of Science in Education from Queens College. Randy started her editorial career at Holt, Rinehart, and Winston. She taught high school math before returning to a career as a freelance editor/writer. She specializes in editing and writing math books for grades 4 through 8.

Dan Greenberg is author of 20 books for Scholastic Professional Books including Fabulous Fractions and Comic Strip Math, both of which have sold over 75,000 copies. Dan is currently working on True Tales of Deep Irony and Petty Vindication, a cartoon series that he hopes to turn into a book.

Jessica Harwood is a freelance writer and a Professor of Biology at Spartanburg Methodist College. She earned a B.A. in biology from Ohio Wesleyan University, a M.S. in botany from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and a M.A. in professional communication from Clemson University.

Andrea is a graduate of Western Michigan University and Marygrove College. She currently teaches high school math and English at Maple Valley High School in Vermontville, MI. She also teaches online math courses for Michigan Virtual School and Axia College. She resides in Grand Ledge, MI with her husband and son.

After completing her degree in Music Education, Kathryn taught high school choir for one year, spent three years splitting her time between music and technology, and was ultimately lured fulltime to the field of Educational Technology as it took off in the late 1980s. She worked as the Technology Integration Specialist at the Nueva School in the San Francisco Bay Area for from 1989 to 2007 and concurrently taught in the Teaching Credential Programs at San Francisco State University and UC Berkeley. She recently left the non-profit world and now works as Education Outreach Manager at Luidia Inc., an Interactive Whiteboard Manufacturer, in San Carlos, CA. She enjoys traveling and hiking and still finds time to sing with friends.

Dr. Kraus received her Ph.D. in zoology from Rutgers University. For over 20 years she has been a freelance science and medical writer and editor, for both technical and lay audiences. Dr. Kraus has contributed to several books, has written for a variety of media including educational publishing, newspapers and radio, and has consulted for public television. She received an American Medical Writers Association award for a newspaper series on Alzheimers Disease.

Stephen Krause is a full professor at Arizona State University, where he teaches courses in polymer science, materials characterization, and capstone design. He has conducted research in engineering education at the undergraduate level and K-12 outreach. He co-advises students from education, chemistry, physics, and math on National Science Foundation projects on Engineering Education and Project Pathways. He is currently developing tools to assess knowledge, skills and self-confidence in math, science, and engineering for high school students. Overall, he is working at the local and national level to broaden participation in engineering and design to all students in K-12 with particular emphasis on females and minorities.

Mara Landers holds a B.A. in mathematics from Swarthmore College, and an M.A. and PhD in mathematics education from the University of California, Berkeley. Dr. Landers has worked as a mathematics educator since 1997, including teaching, tutoring, educational research, and curriculum and assessment development. Dr. Landers is currently an assistant professor of mathematics at Los Medanos College in Pittsburg, CA.

I was born in Tucson with all its desert beauty and heat! I was delighted to move to Santa Barbara where I attended Westmont College [BA in Chemistry]. I Moved to Taipei, Taiwan for a year; taught in the American HS. Later, my family and I lived in Hong Kong for six years. I Returned to the US; entered Stanford University; [MA in Science Education]. For the past 32 years, I have taught chemistry in private and public high schools in California.

Mary Lusk is an Environmental Science instructor at Southwest Florida College in Tampa, Florida. She also works as a freelance science education writer and especially enjoys writing about Earth Science. She has college degrees in Geology and Soil Science, and in her free time she likes collect rocks and minerals, garden, and spend time with her husband and 3 little boys.

I am Brenda Meery and am a high school mathematics teacher in Glace Bay, Nova Scotia. I have been teaching for thirty-three years and have been involved in the implementation of math courses at the high school level. In addition to this involvement, I have been a presenter at many provincial training sessions for math teachers. While teaching full time, I managed to raise four daughters who have since left the nest and are successful in their chosen fields. Teaching has been a diverse yet rewarding experience and a career that I would recommend.

Brianne Megerdichian earned her teaching credential from California State University, Northridge in 2001. Brianne is currently working as a K-8 science teacher in San Diego, but has also taught middle school math and 5th grade. She has spent most of her teaching career working with second language learners and students with special needs. Brianne believes that a good curriculum is challenging, hands-on, has ties to the real world, and meets the needs of a diverse population of learners. In addition to writing for CK12.org, Brianne has also written for Kaplan, Inc.

Darryl Morrell received his B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering in 1984, 1986, and 1988 from Brigham Young University. He is currently an associate professor of engineering at Arizona State University, where he is participating in the design and implementation of a multi-disciplinary undergraduate engineering program using innovative, research-based pedagogical and curricular approaches. He has been actively involved in the development of open educational resources and has authored modules with the Connexions project (an open source curriculum authoring system). His technical research interests include stochastic decision theory applied to sensor scheduling and information fusion, and, more recently, application of research based pedagogy to engineering education.

Colleen O'Donnell Oppenzato has worked in the field of educational publishing since 1999, developing mathematics curricula for grades 2-11. Before that, Colleen participated in Teach for America and worked as a teacher of exceptional children at the middle school level. She has also worked as a fifth-grade teacher. She is currently completing a master's degree in Cognitive Studies in Education at Teachers College, Columbia University.

Erik Ong is from the San Francisco Bay Area. He has worked in San Ysidro Middle School on the California-Mexico border for ten years as a school counselor and a teacher of algebra and science. He believes in giving all students access to the teaching standards while building vital social skills as well. He was selected as Teacher of the Year for the San Ysidro School District during the 2007-2008 school year.

Graduated San Jose State University BA - 1967 MA - 1968 Taught chemistry and physics in Santa Clara Unified School District 1967 - 2007.

Chell Roberts is the Chair of a new multidisciplinary engineering program at Arizona State University's Polytechnic campus. He received a PhD in industrial engineering from Virginia Tech, a master's degree in industrial engineering from the University of Utah and a bachelor's degree in mathematics from the University of Utah. Dr. Roberts has published over 70 technical articles, participated in over $2 million dollars of research, provided consulting services to many companies, and served on many national conference organization committees, national review boards, and technical committees. Dr. Roberts's primary research and teaching interests are in the area of manufacturing automation, computer simulation, and engineering education.

Geoff Ruth teaches chemistry, AP Chemistry, geology, and environmental science at the Urban School of San Francisco. Before coming to Urban, he taught science at Leadership High School for five years, and wrote chemistry curriculum at Lawrence Hall of Science. Geoff earned a geology degree from Carleton College, and tries to integrate many different science and math topics into his classes. When not teaching, he enjoys bicycling, rock climbing, woodworking, and exploring the Sierra.

Jim taught secondary math from the East Coast to Hawaii and back to West Virginia. He worked with teachers and students from kindergarten through high school as a math/science specialist. Jim also spent several years creating and managing statewide math testing programs. Along the way Jim published many articles in math and science teacher journals, and he edited secondary math textbooks. Jim has a special interest in hands-on and project-based math learning.

Helen Scully was born in 1977 and received her degree from Brown University. She has long been committed to creating quality, imaginative education content. Her novel, In the Hope of Rising Again, was published in 2004.

For over 20 years Dr. Wagner taught mathematics, science, computer science, and teacher education from 7th grade through college. His other careers have included software manager, mathematics textbook author, and designer of online classes. Recently he was delighted to return to mathematics, his first true love, and to helping teachers explore ways to improve teaching and learning with technology.

Sean Walker is currently finishing his last few years of a PhD program in Computer Science at Stanford University. Sean taught the introductory Computer Graphics class at Stanford for two summers, TA'd more times than he would have liked, and currently moonlights as an SAT instructor and tutor for one of the major SAT prep companies.

Janel White-Taylor is assistant professor at Arizona State University. In addition to teaching, she directs the Project eXcellence Program, which provides high-quality out-of-school learning environments for underserved K-12 students. The project assists both preservice and in-service teachers by offering site-based courses and unique field experiences. White-Taylor's research interests include innovative strategies to integrate technology into the classroom, using technology as a tool to increase student achievement and retention, and the effects of technology-infused, out-of-school programs.

Douglas Wilkin, Ph.D. is currently the Chair, Department of Science at Arleta High School in the Los Angeles Unified School District. Prior to teaching high school, Dr. Wilkin held a number of faculty positions at leading research institutions throughout the United States, including the National Human Genome Research Institute of the National Institutes of Health, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, and the Federal Bureau of Investigations in Quantico, Virginia. He is extensively published.