QuantumCamp is a team of teachers who are passionate about changing education.
We aren't satisfied with status quo and we believe that the best way to change education is to step forward and do it.
We believe in working together to solve problems and that research is the best way to solve big problems.
Much like a Silicon Valley company we know that process is the way to ensure repeatable outcome.
Each of us understands that teaching is a combination of preparation and emotional intelligence.
We work at QuantumCamp because we know that our work here is building the future of education and that will impact thousands of children.
| Ryan Nurmela - co-founder and CEORyan is a credentialed mathematics and physics teacher and co-founded QuantumCamp in 2008. His breadth of educational background has taught him that the earlier a child learns math and science the more richly connected they will become to those topics. He firmly believes that through amazing curriculum students of all socio-economic and learning backgrounds can learn far more than what our current educational system is designed to deliver. He has been teaching for 20 years and has worked in a wide variety of educational venues. Ryan began tutoring students in Latin and mathematics at the age of 15 and continued tutoring on into college. While lecturing physics at San Francisco State University, Ryan recognized a lifelong passion to teach science and mathematics to new generations of students. After working at the university level, Ryan realized that many of his students were ill-prepared and poorly trained in both mathematics and science. This realization led Ryan to become a public school mathematics teacher in both Oakland and Richmond with the goal of helping a new generation of students into scientific careers. Ryan is also the co-founder of leaf education, a software company dedicated to bringing the same design process QED™ to the digital space.
Michael Finnegan, Ph.D. - co-founder and COOMichael's interest in science education began with a simple observation made way back in high school. He loved science but noticed he did not love his science courses! This small disconnect resurfaced years later, after earning a degree in Materials Science from Penn State University and a Ph.D. in Materials Science from the University of Wisconsin. His doctoral research focused on the synthesis and peculiar properties of titanium dioxide nanoparticles. He found that when particles are only hundreds of atoms big, they behave in very different ways. For instance, they can switch crystal forms with very little input of energy. In addition to laboratory research, Michael was a floor engineer at Evergreen Solar silicon solar cell manufacturing company where he correlated specific manufacturing steps with impact on silicon crystal quality and overall cell efficiency. Through a volunteer position teaching math to Oakland public school students, he saw other young students make the same observation he did back in high school. The students were naturally curious about the world but not about class! He proceeded to earn a California Teaching Credential and taught in public and private high schools middle schools in California for 4 years. He decided to directly tap into the innate curiosity of all humans and founded, with Ryan, a company called QuantumCamp. Michael and Ryan are developing courses in an environment where the curiosity of the student is the guiding force. Michael is also the co-founder of leaf education, a software company bringing the same spirit to digital education. | Sharon Woodburn, M.A. - Associate Curriculum DesignerSharon's interest in math and science began at an early age. Her earliest academic memory is of her grandfather teaching her the multiplication tables when she was in kindergarten (and then of course quizzing her older sister on these math facts). She continued to enjoy math and science throughout her school years, and when she got to college, she found it was time to narrow her interests. Sharon’s main interest was in the life sciences, and in her sophomore year of college, she began the Human Biology core classes at Stanford. These courses were unique in that they studied the human being from various perspectives, including biological, behavioral, and cultural. For example, during a unit on child development, Sharon was interning at an on-campus preschool. In her classes, she was learning about the physical and neurological changes that are happening as a child grows. She was also learning about linguistics and language development, and the development of gross and fine motor skills, which made the learning more practical and applicable to her experiences. It was during these courses that Sharon realized two things: that she wanted to become an educator, and that she wanted to engage her students in learning that is relevant to their lives. After earning her B.A. in Human Biology at Stanford, Sharon attended the Stanford Teacher Education Program, STEP, to earn her M.A. in Elementary Education, as well as her teaching credential. After spending four years teaching preschool and kindergarten, Sharon was eager to combine her passion for science with her love of teaching. She joins QuantumCamp excited about creating hands-on learning experiences, as well as meaningful connections between classroom learning and students’ real life experiences.
Lisa Bishop, Ph.D. - Resident Curriculum Designer Lisa’s love of mathematics has always been tied to her love of its applications in everything from art to science. After being unable to give up the study of either subject, Lisa got a degree in both math and music at Occidental College. She went on to get a Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics from the University of Washington doing research in math biology, and did a postdoctoral fellowship at the Gladstone Institute at UCSF working alongside experimentalists to develop mathematical models of HIV. During her graduate career Lisa spent two years as an NSF GK-12 fellow working in public elementary schools in the Seattle area to develop and teach exploratory math lessons. She enjoyed finding applications of math that would engage students, but also allow them creativity in problem solving and was astounded by the deep mathematical capabilities of her students. During her time in the classroom Lisa was disheartened to see how the current culture around mathematics limits students from seeing its role in science, art, and everyday life. To address this she co-founded a math outreach program, run entirely by graduate students, to present young students with examples of the applications being studied by mathematicians and engineers. Lisa is dedicated to using her own interdisciplinary background to create an environment where students can engage with mathematics in a meaningful way and be inspired by its applications. |
