Tim McCollum
About your instructor....
I am a graduate of Homewood-Flossmoor High School (1969) in Flossmoor, IL and Eastern Illinois University (B.S. in Ed., 1973, M.S. in Zoology, 1977). Following a thirty-eight year tenure of teaching science at Charleston Middle School, the 2013/14 school year will mark my third year teaching in the Department of Early Childhood, Elementary, and Middle Level Education at Eastern Illinois University.
While my college preparation was in the biological sciences, my main interests are in the space and atmospheric sciences and date back to the 1960's and the days of the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs. Through my focus on space science education, I have been a participant in five NASA Educators' Launch Conferences at the Kennedy Space Center - the Galileo Jupiter Probe, the Hubble Space Telescope, the maiden launch of Space Shuttle Endeavour, the launch of the 2003 Mars Exploration Rover B - Opportunity, and the 2007 launch of Mars Phoenix. I have also received training at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Johnson Space Center, NASA Headquarters, and at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory as a NASA/JPL Solar System Educator for Illinois.
I served as a senior staff member for the Passport to Knowledge (P2K) initiative. My responsibilities for this role included designing activities, conducting workshops, mentoring teachers, and promoting participation in the P2K experience. I have been a member of the curriculum design team and contributed lessons and activities for the following P2K teacher's guides - Live From the Rainforest, Live From the Sun, Live From the Storm, and Passport to the Solar System, and have served as a lead teacher for the Marsapalooza and Polar Palooza initiatives.
I have served on the Steering Committee for the Digital Library for Earth System Education (DLESE) and completed a three-year collaborative project with EIU and Argonne National Laboratory titled the Atmospheric Visualization Collection. This collection is now archived in both DLESE and the National Science Digital Library (NSDL). Other responsibilities include being the project director a Toyota TAPESTRY grant titled - Frosted Flakes: The Science of Snowflakes.
In March of 2004 I received the Presidential Award of Excellence for Math and Science Teaching for Illinois, and I have served four times on the National Selection Committee for this award. PAEMST Recognition Week. In the spring of 2006, I accepted an appointment to the National Science Board Commission on 21st Century Education in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics.
During the second semester of the 2008-09 school, I was granted a sabbatical as part of the Golden Apple Central Illinois Academy. My primary focus during that sabbatical was serving as a co-investigator for a NASA-funded grant titled Expedition Earth and Beyond (EEAB). EEAB is now a NASA educational resource designed for classroom use. My roles as a NASA subcontractor and consultant on the curriculum design team for EEAB continue to this day. My association with Golden Apple continues as the Director of the Golden Apple Summer Institute EIU.
In the spring of 2010, I received the Horace Mann Award for Teaching Excellence from the National Education Association Foundation and in 2011 served on the National Selection Panel for this award.