Tim McCollum

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). The 2008/09 school year will mark my thirty-sixth year of teaching at Charleston Middle School in Charleston, IL.

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, NASA Headquarters, and at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory as a NASA/JPL Solar System Educator for Illinois.

Along with my teaching duties at CMS, I serve as a senior staff member for the Passport to Knowledge (P2K) initiative. My responsibilities for this role include 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 recently 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 for two Toyota TAPESTRY grants titled - Frosted Flakes: The Science of Snowflakes. and Weatherwise: Broadcast Meteorology for Middle School Science. I am also a Toyota TAPESTRY Ambassador and assist other teachers with the grant application process.

In March of 2004 I received the Presidential Award of Excellence for Math and Science Teaching for Illinois, and the past two summers I served on the National Selection Committee for this award. PAEMST Recognition Week | White House Picture

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 will be serving a sabbatical as part of the Golden Apple Central Illinois Academy.