Life is messy and fun.
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HOWDY!Hi there! My name is Alison and I choose to spend my finite time on this planet learning as much as I possibly can about the world, building and maintaining all kinds of meaningful and fulfilling relationships with fellow humans, and trying my best to make the world a better place before I leave. What are you up to?
I'm a career science educator, an amateur brass player, and an armchair philosopher. I spend my days teaching physics, astronomy, and engineering and I spend my evenings and weekends playing music, stargazing (weather permitting!) and trying to keep up with a life that is far too busy for my own good. Welcome to the STEMpire, my little home on the World Wide Web. What's the "STEMpire"? First and foremost, it's a corny play on words because as a teacher of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics) my top priority is to use lame jokes to annoy my students. But it's also an idea I've developed over time; a way of thinking about my function as a science educator. I'm trying my best to spread the Gospel of Science, as it were. I'm a disciple of Sagan, Feynman, and a whole gob of other science communicators who work tirelessly to instill a sense of responsibility and community among our fellow humans -- a responsibility to think critically and use logic and evidence to build the foundations of our lives, and to be inspired by the worldwide community in which we live to act with compassion towards one another and ourselves. If you dig these ideas, you're already a citizen of the STEMpire. |
EducatorTeaching and communicating science isn't just my job, it's my passion.
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MusicianWhat's life without art? Whether I'm playing or listening, music is a major part of my life.
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RebelDon't be alarmed -- he's a STEMtrooper.
He's on our side. |
"I have a foreboding of an America in my children's or grandchildren's time -- when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what's true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness." ~ Carl Sagan