MY STORY
Personal Profile
I am a passionate lifelong learner, science communicator and STEM educator. I’m a mathematics and science teacher, tinkerer and maker.
My interests span from 3D modelling and printing to coding, electronics and the Internet of things, to workshop design and capacity-building.
In both my personal and professional life, I’m firmly committed to the philosophies of design-thinking, iteration and inquiry-based learning. I value collaboration, delegation and teamwork, but also individual initiative.
I bring with me an enthusiasm backed by experience.
I also love a good spreadsheet, am captivated by data visualisation and metrics and build hovercrafts and hydraulic arms in my spare time.
PAST EXPERIENCE
Past Roles
SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING CHALLENGE TEAM LEADER, UNIVERSITY OF NEWCASTLE
March 2020 - Current
Part of a 20+ year STEM outreach program in the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment. The role involves organising and running Science and Engineering Challenge Events around Australia, collaborating to design and develop new activities and writing new science shows.
SCIENCE COMMUNICATOR, DEPARTMENT OF INDUSTRY, INNOVATION AND SCIENCE
February 2019 - December 2019
Designed and delivered science shows, workshops and Teacher PD events; managed media campaigns, medium-sized team logistics and floor-managed Pop-Up Science Centres throughout north and south-east QLD, Northern Territory and North-West NSW.
CLASSROOM TEACHER, NSW DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
February 2015 - December 2018
Taught mostly Mathematics, but also Music, Photography, Technology and PE in a remote central school. Coordinated senior mathematics across four schools as part of the Northern Border Senior Access Program.
CASUAL ACADEMIC, UNIVERSITY OF NEW ENGLAND
2013-2015
Marked first-year mathematics assignments for STAT100, MATH120, MATH123
PEER ASSISTED STUDY SESSIONS LEADER, UNIVERSITY OF NEW ENGLAND
February 2012 - December 2014
Attended lectures with students, organised and delivered capacity-building workshops for first-year mathematics students with a focus on student-driven, collaborative learning
ACADEMIC MENTOR (PHYSICS AND MATHEMATICS), DUVAL COLLEGE
January 2012 - December 2012
Organised seminars, liaised with academics and worked with the First Year Science coordinator to improve the learning experience of students.
PRIVATE MATHEMATICS TUTOR
2013-2014
Worked casually for a range of families, helping with homework, diagnosing learning difficulties and designing solutions
HOMEWORK CLUB LEADER, THE ARMIDALE SCHOOL, ARMIDALE, NSW
2014
Supervised and assisted a range of high school students with their mathematics homework
ACADEMIC EXPERIENCE
My Studies
Febuary 2019 - November 2019
MASTER OF SCIENCE COMMUNICATION OUTREACH WITH COMMENDATION, AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY
The fieldwork component of this degree involved travelling Australia delivering original science shows and workshops with the Shell Questacon Science Circus. I studied units at ANU's Centre for the Public Awareness of Science on Science Communication and the Public, Science Communication and the Media, Science Communication and the Web and Science Communication Project Design and Delivery.
February 2013 - November 2014
MASTER OF TEACHING (SECONDARY), UNIVERSITY OF NEW ENGLAND
During this degree, I specialised in Science and Mathematics Teaching with advanced units on teaching
both Junior and Senior years.
February 2010 - June 2013
BACHELOR OF SCIENCE (MATHEMATICS AND APPLIED PHYSICS), UNIVERSITY OF NEW ENGLAND
During this degree, I completed units in Photonics, Fluid Dynamics, Electronics, Astronomy and Quantum
Mechanics, Discrete Mathematics, Number Theory, Multivariable Calculus, Linear Algebra, Complex
Analysis, Applied Mathematics and Statistics.
PROFICIENCIES
TEACHING
Proficiently Accredited in NSW
Four years teaching mathematics in a remote Central School. Have also taught Music, Photography, Technology and PE.
YouTube Channel: Mr Human
(In development)
SCIENCE SHOW DESIGN AND DELIVERY
Experienced
Travelled Australia 2019 with the Shell Questacon Science Circus. Performed over 100 shows aimed at communicating science to primary and secondary audiences.
STEM WORKSHOP DESIGN AND DELIVERY
Experienced
Co-designer Middle School STEM program 2018; delivered Teacher PD Sessions with the Shell Questacon Science Circus 2019; designed and delivered original STEM workshop for remote Indigenous communities 2019; designed and delivered original STEM Teacher PD: "Crash Course CAD" 2019
CAD DESIGN & 3D PRINTING
Hobbyist
Proficiency using Fusion 360
3D Printing
Laser Cutting
Wood Working
Furniture Design
Mechanical Engineering
Jobs to commission
PROGRAMMING
Intermediate
Self-taught
Completed courses in Data Science, Simulating Natural Systems, App Development, Game Development with Scratch, IoT and Arduino, Web Development with React
OFFICE 365
Experienced
Self-Taught
Power-user of Excel and Word
Taught extensively using OneNote
Experienced user of PowerPoint and Publisher
ADOBE SUITE
Intermediate
Self-Taught
Completed courses on Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign
Experienced user Animate, Character Animator and Premier
Novice user XD, After Effects
ANIMATION
Intermerdiate
Completed five-part animated series combining Adobe Animate, Adobe Character Animator and Adobe Premiere
FILM-MAKING
Amateur
Several projects celebrating school life (cannot be shown without permission)
THEATRE
Amateur
Felt Tip Theatre Company
The Threepenny Opera, 2012
Wind in the Willows, 2013
The Tempest, 2014
University Theatre
The Duchess of Malfi
Duval College Theatre Sports
2011-2012
PHOTOGRAPHY
Semi-Professional
Event Photography
Sport Photography
Macro Photography
Light Painting
Drone Photography
APP DEVELOPMENT
Beginner
Completed Udemy Course: "The Complete 2020 Flutter Development Bootcamp with Dart"
Growing portfolio hosted on GitHub
SHOWCASE: DESIGNS IN FUSION 360
Hand-Gripper Stand
A few years ago, I decided that I wanted to improve my grip strength. I bought a few hand grippers, but didn't have a good storage solution for them. I decided to do up a modular design where extra segments could be printed as needed.
Punch Mechanism
Wanting to explore mechanical engineering principles, I found a site called 507 Mechanical Movements and set about recreating them. This was also my first experiment in adding joints between components in Fusion 360. Animations to come.
Reverse-Engineered Converting Table/Bookshelf
Reverse-engineering is one of my favourite things to do. I have a background in physics, not mechanical engineering, but I'm endlessly fascinated by the cleverness of designers. No designs capture my imagination as much as the world of compact furniture. I used reference images and YouTube videos and a not-insignificant amount of trial and error to produce this design. From here, it's a fairly simple task to turn this into 2D woodworking design. I've since explored expandable tables and I'm having a lot of fun with it. Animations to come.
ONLINE COURSES COMPLETED
An obsession with self-education
THE COMPLETE 2020 FLUTTER DEVELOPMENT BOOTCAMP WITH DART
Angela Yu - London App Brewery
Fundamental Flutter concepts e.g. Stateful vs. Stateless Widgets, Widget tree, state management, animations, themes and much more.
Fundamental Dart concepts e.g. lists, maps, enums, loops, futures, streams, mixins, classes, and much more.
Concepts of Object Oriented Programming (OOP): The type system, variables, functions and methods, inheritance, classes and protocols.
Control Structures: Using If/Else clauses, Switch statements and logic to control the flow of execution.
Data Structures: How to work with collections, such as Lists and Maps.
Software Design: How to organise and format code for readability and how to implement the Model View Controller (MVC) design pattern.
Networking: How to make asynchronous API calls, store and retrieve data from the cloud, and use the JSON format for server communication.
Data Storage: How to use Firebase Cloud Firestore to act as a backend for your Flutter apps.
Authentication: How to use log in and register users for your Flutter apps.
State Management: How to use setState, prop drilling, lifting state up, callbacks and the Provider package to manage app state.
LEARNING PYTHON FOR DATA ANALYSIS AND VISUALISATION
Jose Portilla, Pierian Data Inc.
Have an intermediate skill level of Python programming.
Use the Jupyter Notebook Environment.
Use the numpy library to create and manipulate arrays.
Use the pandas module with Python to create and structure data.
Learn how to work with various data formats within python, including: JSON,HTML, and MS Excel Worksheets.
Create data visualizations using matplotlib and the seaborn modules with python
SCRATCH GAME PROGRAMMING FOR YOUNG ADULTS
Al Sweigart
Program 6 different video games and interactive art projects.
Figure out how to experiment with Scratch to continue learning.
DESIGNING FOR 3D PRINTING WITH FUSION 360
Vladimir Mariano
Learn the skills to design your own models for 3D printing using Autodesk Fusion 360, a very powerful and free software for 3D design
ADOBE INDESIGN CC COMPLETE MASTERCLASS: LEARN ADOBE INDESIGN
Chad Neuman, Ph.D.
Master Adobe InDesign, the industry-standard graphic design and publication software.
Professionally design and produce a lookbook in Adobe InDesign.
Professionally design and produce a poster in Adobe InDesign.
Professionally design and produce an annual report in Adobe InDesign.
Effectively place and edit text, images, and illustrations in Adobe InDesign.
Formulate and apply color schemes by using a variety of methods.
Learn how to use spot colors, process colors, and the context for both.
Design, format, edit, and copy tables in Adobe InDesign.
Use Photoshop and InDesign together seamlessly, to adjust layer comps, layer visibility, and other settings of placed PSD files in InDesign.
Use Illustrator and InDesign together seamlessly, to produce patterns and place illustrations.
Apply preflighting and printing techniques and principles for professional results.
PHOTOSHOP CC CRASH COURSE
Jeremy Shuback, Animation Director
Understanding the Basics - goes over how to navigate the interface, basic shortcut keys, adding text, working with images, and other features to get you up and running as quickly as possible.
Layers - shows you how to combine multiple images, resize them, split them apart, and add in color boxes.
Selections - starts by showing how to remove simple images from a photograph and finishes by showing how to select out strands of hair and change the background.
Color Correction - goes from simple corrections to in depth theory. It uses this theory to fix complicated photographs, change the color of a shirt from yellow to green, and even turn part of an image into black and white.
Object Removal - isn't just about how to remove a pimple. It covers removing wires, large objects such as a fencepost, and even how to get rid of something like a date stamp when it is in front of a person's face.
Beauty Retouching - I show you how to remove wrinkles, increase the size of an eye or decrease your nose size, how to smooth skin, what to do if you make a mistake, and how to fix problems such as bloodshot eyes.
Compositing - you see how all of these individual tools we've learned along the way can actually be combined to accomplish just about anything, from merging together household goods to to removing a person from a photograph and putting someone else in that person's place.
ADOBE ILLUSTRATOR CRASH COURSE - THE ULTIMATE STARTER COURSE
Lindsay Marsh,
Be familiar with the Adobe illustrator program and learn the basic functions.
Make shapes, use the pen tool, work with type, set up files for print and digital formats and work with gradients and vector formats.
