2022 Summer Cohort Participants

2021 Summer Cohort Participants

Michael Dobberstein has been a physics teacher at North High School since 2013.  He has also coached boys golf and basketball.  He is working on "Effect of Earthquake-Induced Leakage of Landfill Leachate to the Surface and Groundwater Quality" with graduate student, Biraj Saha, under faculty mentor, Dr. Syeed Iskander.

Mike Finneseth has over 30 years of experience teaching science at the high school level, the last 24 of which were spent teaching Biology, Chemistry, AP Biology, Anatomy and Physiology and Forensics at Fargo North High School.  Prior to teaching at Fargo North, he spent 9 years teaching in the Twin Cities and one year in Phoenix, AZ.  He is working on "Mapping Slope Failures in North Dakota" with graduate student, Umesh Acharya, under faculty mentors, Drs. Beena Ajmera and Aaron Daigh.

Kim McVicar has over 25 years of teaching experience and holds a lifetime teaching certificate in North Dakota.  She has a secondary composite degree in science with concentrations in chemistry and biology.  Kim has taught biology, chemistry, earth science, physical science, physics and currently teaches physical science and genetics at Sheyenne High School.  She was among the first teachers in North Dakota to receive the National Board Certification in Adolescent and Young Adulthood Science in 1999.  She is working on "Effect of Earthquake-Induce Leakage of Landfill Leachate to the Surface and Groundwater Quality" with graduate student, Biraj Saha, under faculty mentor, Dr. Syeed Iskander.

Martha Nelson graduated from St. Olaf College with a B.A. in Mathematics and began her teaching career at St. Johnsbury Academy in St. Johnsbury, VT, where she taught math from 1987 to 2006.  She received an M.A. in Mathematics Education from Norwich University in 1995 and achieved National Board Certification in 2003.  She also earned an M.S. in Applied Statistics from NDSU in 2010, during which time she was a lecturer in the Statistics Department.  Martha taught Introductory Statistics and mathematics at Minnesota State University, Moorhead from 2010 to 2013.  Since 2013, she has been teaching mathematics at North High School.  She is working on "Big Data Application for Emergency Evacuation in Multi-Hazard Events" with graduate student, Salman Ahmad, under faculty mentors, Drs. Ying Huang and Wenjie Xia.

Amanda Oanes graduated from Colorado School of Mines in 2012 with a Bachelors of Science in Environmental Engineering.  She is a registered Professional Engineer in North Dakota.  She has taught Environmental Science and Field Biology for two years at West Fargo High School.  She is working on "Hydraulic Simulation of Flooding in Fargo-Moorhead" with graduate student, Berkay Koyuncu, under faculty mentor, Dr. Trung Le.

Josh Rogers is an English Language Learners (EL) science teacher at Davies High School.  He has been teaching for 11 years.  He holds a B.A. degree in Biology Education, an M.A. in Physics Education, and an EL certificate.  He is working on "Big Data Application for Emergency Evacuation in Multi-Hazard Events" with graduate student, Salman Ahmad, under faculty mentors, Drs. Ying Huang and Wenjie Xia.

MacKenzie Teigen is a senior at NDSU majoring in biology education.  Her teaching experience outside of classroom observations are with Upward Bound.  During the school year, she is a tutor mentor with Upward Bound and during the summer she teaches part of their 6-week summer program.  MacKenzie has also taught a culinary class to elementary and middle schoolers.  She is working on "Quantifying Strength Degradations Resulting from Cyclic Loading in Fine-Grained Soils using Machine Learning" with graduate student, Muhammad Shahid Iqbal, under faculty mentors, Drs. Beena Ajmera and Om Prakash Yadav.

Ryan Wenaas completed his undergraduate and graduate studies at UND in Math Education.  He has taught math at the college level for a total of four years at UND, NDSCS, and NDSU and at the high school level for two years at Montevideo High School in Montevideo, MN and for the past four years at Davies High School.  He is working on "Mapping Slope Failures in North Dakota" with graduate student, Umesh Acharya, under faculty mentors, Drs. Beena Ajmera and Aaron Daigh.

Jill Wold has been teaching for 25 years and has been in the West Fargo school district since 2002.  Currently, she teaches biology and earth science at Sheyenne High School.  Jill has a Master's in Science Education from NDSU and completed her National Board certification in 2018.  Sheis working on "Hydraulic Simulation of Flooding in Fargo-Moorhead" with graduate student, Berkay Koyuncu, under faculty mentor, Dr. Trung Le.

Application
Curriculum Modules
Publications

Beena Ajmera, Ph.D., P.E.
Email: bajmera@iastate.edu
​​​​​​​Phone: (515) 294-2417

Sarah Crary, Ph.D.
Email: sarah.crary@ndsu.edu
Phone: (701) 231-5498