visit author page

Dr. Herak is a four time graduate of The Ohio State University: BSE (Science Education), MS (Env Sci), MS (Civil Eng), and PhD (STEM Education). As an undergrad he was a member of The Ohio State University Marching Band for 5-years and can still be found playing with the TBDBITL Alumni Band.

Dr. Herak was a secondary science teacher for 18-years, primarily for Westerville City Schools. However, he did take a leave of absence to teach at Aldenham School near London (UK). Dr. Herak has served as an adjunct professor at Central Ohio Technical College (Environmental Science) and adjunct professor position at Ashland University - Columbus Branch (Science Education), a position he still currently holds. Dr. Herak is currently completing a Master's Degree in Foreign Secondary and Multilingual Education and serves as a Senior Lecturer in the College of Engineering at The Ohio State University.

Dr. Herak has presented at education conferences at the state, national and international level including the Science Education Council of Ohio, National Science Teachers Association, International Consortium of Research in Science and Math Education, First Year Engineering Education conference and American Society for Engineering Education conference.

visit author page

visit author page

Meg E. West is an engineering education graduate student at The Ohio State University. She is a graduate teaching and research associate for the Department of Engineering Education.

visit author page

visit author page

Dr. Hylton is an Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Coordinator of the First-Year Engineering experience for the T.J. Smull College of Engineering at Ohio Northern University. He previously completed his graduate studies in Mechanical Engineering at Purdue University, where he conducted research in both the School of Mechanical Engineering and the School of Engineering Education. Prior to Purdue, he completed his undergraduate work at the University of Tulsa, also in Mechanical Engineering. He currently teaches first-year engineering courses as well as various courses in Mechanical Engineering, primarily in the mechanics area. His pedagogical research areas include standards-based assessment and curriculum design, including the incorporation of entrepreneurial thinking into the engineering curriculum and especially as pertains to First-Year Engineering.

visit author page

visit author page

Todd France is the director of Ohio Northern University's Engineering Education program, which strives to prepare engineering educators for the 7-12 grade levels. Dr. France is also heavily involved in developing and facilitating the first-year engineering program at ONU. He earned his PhD from the University of Colorado Boulder where his research focused on pre-engineering education and project-based learning.

visit author page

visit author page

Bruce Wellman is a National Board Certified Teacher (NBCT, Chemistry) who teaches Engineering Chemistry as part of Engineering Academy at Olathe Northwest High School in Olathe, KS and serves as a Co-Principal Investigator on an NSF funded (DR K-12) research project entitled “Building Informed Designers”. Wellman is a member of ASEE’s Board of Directors’ Committee on P-12 Engineering Education. Wellman completed his B.S. degree in general science (focus in chemistry) at Penn State University and his M.S. in Education at the University of Rochester (NY). He has taught overseas as an English teacher in French-speaking Africa as well as a chemistry/AP Chemistry teacher in the United States in rural, urban, and suburban settings. He received the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science Teaching in 2009, served as a Teacher Ambassador Fellow at the U.S. Department of Education during the 2011-12 academic year, served as a National STEM Teacher Ambassador for the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) & the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) during the 2017-18 academic year, and he is currently serving a three-year term on the National STEM Education Advisory Panel. Wellman has also worked on several projects and consensus reports for the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering.

visit author page