Laura Nickerson Email & Phone Number

Barrington, Nh, Us

Durham, Nh

I give workshops and tailored professional development in the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), engineering, computer science, robotics, and physical science to teachers and administrators throughout the state of New Hampshire. I assist districts in aligning their curricula with the NGSS, especially in vertical alignment across all grade levels, K-12. I maintain a lending library of engineering and robotics equipment for elementary schools, host the yearly STEM Educators' Summit, and connect teachers with the excellent STEM resources on the two UNH campuses. I am the director of the elementary engineering camp KEEPERS, taught app development in the EPIC computer camps, and I am the NH Regional Partner for Code.org, organizing and delivering workshops all over the state in Code.org's Computer Science Professional Learning Program. I am active in social media and find it an excellent way to connect with teachers. I maintain a SalesForce database and use Drupal for updating my website.Course taught: Introduction to Internet and Web Authoring (HTML5/CSS3)

The TOPS program provided an eight-week experience for undergraduate physics majors to learn about teaching, to design curricula and to experience teaching first-hand. I hired, coached and mentored undergraduate physics and engineering majors through the curriculum-writing process and their teaching, providing daily feedback on their instruction as they taught summer camps in physics.

Windham, Nh

I created the Mythbusters project-based curriculum and I completely redesigned both College Preparatory Physics and Object Oriented Programming I and II to be hands-on, inquiry-based, and competition-driven. I was the physics and engineering lead as the science department aligned their curricula to the Next Generation Science Standards. Courses taught: AP Physics 2, Object-Oriented Programming I and II, Introduction to Engineering Design (including CAD with Autodesk Inventor), College Physics, Mythbusters, Integrated Science, Physical Science, Introduction to TechnologyCoached: JagCode: the WHS Coding Team

Chestnut Hill, Ma

Courses Taught: Advanced Honors Physics: Mechanics, Electricity and Magnetism (complete course redesign), Advanced Engineering Design (co-created course), Astronomy (created course), Relativity and Quantum Theory: Physics from 1890 to the present (created course), Freshman Honors Physics (complete course redesign), Freshmen Conceptual Physics (co-authored complete course redesign), Junior-Senior Honors Physics (created course); wrote and maintained online course websites and materials through the Google Suite.Co-curricular activities: Lemelson-MIT InvenTeam: researched and wrote award-winning $10,000 grant, created course and after-school activity, documented monthly progress; US FIRST Robotics Competition Head Coach 2008 - 2012: founded team and coached after school activity, reached semi-finals in 2011 and 2012 Boston Regional, coached team in robot-building, programming, outreach, fundraising; Lead Teacher 2007 - 2009: Mentored new teachers, observed new and experienced teachers, led professional development for middle school and upper school faculty; Independent Study in Physics: topics include teaching robotics using Lego® kits, quantum mechanics, physics of muscles, flight science, electromagnetic propulsion, black holes, acoustics, quasars, and geophysics; Science Olympiad 2006 - 2008 coach (founded team and created after-school activity)

Chestnut Hill, Ma

As department chair, I hired, mentored and evaluated new teachers; evaluated veteran members of the science team on a 3-year rotation; managed department budget of $40k; started DesignLab: an inventor’s workshop (makerspace); designed and provided professional development for science team; admissions outreach - tours, sample classes, meet and greets. I led the redesign of the new (opened 2011) science wing and was the primary liaison between architects, administration, and teachers.

The Wright Fellowship program allowed one to two fellows per year to develop an innovative curriculum of one’s own design. During my project year, I designed curricula and gave three workshops to >30 participants in relativity, cosmology, and quantum mechanics.

Courses taught: Calculus-Based Physics (Advanced Placement Physics C); Modern Physics (complete course redesign); Advanced Physics – Forces and Motion, Advanced Physics – Waves and Fields (Advanced Placement Physics B); Observational Astronomy; Scientific Inquiries (double-credit introductory inquiry-based introduction to physics, astronomy, earth science, chemistry, and biology), four Intersessions in Modern Physics (week long exploratory courses co-taught with Leon Lederman, 1988 Nobel Prize in Physics)Co-curricular activities: Independent Study in Physics: 1-4 students per year, topics include thermodynamics, vibrations, optics, and waves, advanced mechanics, advanced electricity and magnetism, and quantum mechanics; United States Physics Team: school coach and coordinator, 24 semi-finalists (top 200 students in the country), two students on the Team (top 24 in the country) for four years in a row (2002 – 2004), both students made the Traveling Team (top five) – one was first in the world in theoretical physics (2002); Inquiry Students: students who met weekly to work on a project of their own design. Topics include: magnetic propulsion, cosmology, observational astronomy, psychoacoustics; Astronomy Club sponsor and telescope coordinator; School outreach -- admissions days, admissions selection committee, admissions task force, science open house, science outreach days, alumni panels; Science Olympiad coach 2000-2003.

Master Of Science, Physics

Bachelor Of Science, Physics

High School