Dana Desonie

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Dana Desonie
Dana Desonie’s set of eight books on environmental issues entitled “Our Fragile Planet” has just been released by Chelsea House. Booklist named “Oceans: How We Use the Seas” as one of the top ten environmental books for youth for 2007! Besides environmental science, Dana also writes and edits in the fields of geology, oceanography, and biology. With a doctorate in oceanography and a trip to the bottom of the ocean in the research submersible Alvin under her belt, she now lives in the Sonoran Desert with her neuroscientist husband and their two children.
Author of the chapter(s):

Climate
Earth’s Atmosphere
Earthquakes
Ecosystems and Human Populations
Human Actions and the Atmosphere
Plate Tectonics
Weather

Danielle Delancey

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Danielle Delancey
Prior to developing content for the CK-12 Foundation, Danielle DeLancey served as an analyst with a leading educational research firm, a professional development provider, a curriculum developer, and as a middle-grades teacher through the Teach for America program. She earned her master’s degree from Harvard University with extensive coursework in statistical analysis and economics.
Author of the chapter(s):

Analyzing Polynomial and Rational Functions
Analysis of Variance and the F-Distribution
Analyzing Conic Sections
Chi-Square
Hypothesis Testing
Non Parametric Statistics
Polar Equations and Complex Numbers
Regression and Correlation
Vectors

Jim Dann

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Jim Dann
I graduated in physics and mathematics from Carnegie Mellon U; MA from UCLA; secondary credential from SF State. I worked as an electronic engineer and ship-board radar technician in Seattle, and as a teacher for 22 years in High Schools in Hayward and Sacramento. Courses I have taught include physics (AP also), chemistry (AP also), astronomy, calculus, algebra II, precalculus and integrated science. I was a Scimat fellow in Florence (1992), a Department Chair for both science and math, and taught physics lab sections for UC Davis. I am presently a faculty member at Chapman College (teaching prospective teachers for math and science) and a consultant for the Natomas USD. I wrote a number of original labs which have been shared, as well as designed new courses in science and math, now used by teachers at several schools. I co-authored People’s Physics Book, an open-access book, available through the UCSC Institute of Particle Physics and CK-12. I am committed to the idea of collaborative work in science/math texts and lab books.

James Dann Ph.D. (Domain Expert)

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James Dann Ph.D. (Domain Expert)
James H. Dann was born and raised in San Francisco. He attended Lowell High school and went on to UC Santa Barbara where he received a B.S. in physics. James then went to grad school at UC Santa Cruz where he joined Alan Litke’s research group at CERN, the largest particle physics lab in the world. James worked at CERN, in Switzerland, for 4 years where his research earned him a Ph.D. in particle physics. James then moved back to San Francisco and lived with his oldest son Aaron, while teaching high school in the city. After seven wonderful years teaching high school, James went on to work as a Senior Engineer for GMW in Silicon Valley. James has since returned to his true passion of teaching high school at Menlo School and lives with his wife, Nisha, and second son Ashaan in the Bay Area.

D.W. Cummings

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D.W. Cummings
Don Cummings received his Ph.D. in English in 1965 from the University of Washington. He taught English at Central Washington University in Ellensburg, Washington from 1960 until 1996, when he retired as Professor Emeritus of English. For about twenty-five years he directed and was the principal instructor in Central’s Academic Skills Center, where college students were taught developmental writing, spelling, reading, and mathematics. He also served for seven years as chairman of the English Department and later as Dean of the College of Letters, Arts, and Sciences. In 1970 he started writing The Basic Speller, an inductive approach to English spelling for younger students, working with third and fourth graders in the Seattle area. In 1988 the Johns Hopkins University Press published his monograph American English Spelling. In 2003 he established dwcummings.com, a website for spellers, teachers of spelling and reading, and other students of English words. For the last thirty-five years his primary scholarly interest has been English spelling – its system and logic, its history, and how best to teach it to younger and older students. After several decades of frustration with conventional publishers, so reluctant to deal with new approaches that cannot promise a fat bottom line, he’s very interested in and enthusiastic about open-access and collaborative publishing.

George Collison Ph.D. (Domain Expert)

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George CollisonGeorge Collison Ph.D. (Domain Expert)
Dr. George Collison is a nationally known science and mathematics educator. He is one of the founders of the Virtual High School(tm) and lead author of the Seeing Math(tm) video case studies distributed by PBS Teacherline. He has authored courses in algebra, calculus, and physics. George was invited by USAID on several occasions to help science and mathematics planning and write curricula in Africa. His passion lies in crafting clear, highly engaging presentations that build careful bridges from concrete experiences to abstract concepts.

Victor Cifarelli

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Victor Cifarelli
Victor Cifarelli (Ph.D., Mathematics Education, Purdue University) is an Associate Professor of Mathematics and the Coordinator of the Mathematics Education Program in the Department of Mathematics at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. His doctoral research focused on the role of reflective abstraction as a learning process in mathematical problem solving. His current research examines how solvers reflect on and test the viability of their evolving intuitions, and transform their initial hypotheses and conjectures into actual solution activity. Dr. Cifarelli has presented his research at AERA, PME, and PME-NA. His articles have appeared in the Journal of Mathematical Behavior, Focus on Learning Problems in Mathematics and the Proceedings of PME and PME-NA. Over the past several years, he has been an active contributor to SIG/RME as a reviewer and presenter of research papers. In addition to his research interests, Dr. Cifarelli has demonstrated an on-going commitment to the professional development of mathematics teachers. He has taught a variety of undergraduate and graduate mathematics and mathematics education courses including mathematics for elementary education majors, mathematics education for elementary and middle school education majors, and graduate mathematics courses for secondary mathematics teachers. He has co-directed a pair of projects for elementary, middle, and secondary grades mathematics teachers under the Eisenhower Professional Development Program and also has conducted numerous in-service workshops for middle grades and secondary mathematics teachers.
Author of the chapter(s):

Applications of Derivatives
Functions, Limits, and Continuity
Integration
Relationships Within Triangles

Maria Catalina (Domain Expert)

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Maria Catalina (Domain Expert)
Maria Catalina teaches mathematics and science at Mar Vista Middle School in the Sweetwater Union High School District. She began researching curriculum in 1995. As the worlds first Teacher to Space Ambassador she turns “Eyes to the Skies” and brings Space down to Earth. Space travel and the universe drive her standards based curriculum as she introduces her students to their technological futures. Miss Catalina knows that our students are the first space faring generation.

Sarah Brockett

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Sarah Brockett
Sarah Brockett has worked in educational publishing for seven years. After receiving her BA in English Literature from the University of Pennsylvania, she began her editorial career at Pearson Education. She left to pursue work as a freelance writer and editor, and has since participated in projects for all ages and in all disciplines. These include revising the curriculum for Philadelphia public schools, writing AP test guides, contributing encyclopedia entries, and producing various state-oriented math books. She recently earned her Master’s Degree in U.S. History from American University in Washington, DC.
Author of the chapter(s):

Distance and Area
Geometric Figures
Geometry
Geometry and Measurement
Geometry and Transformations
Integers
Measurement, Area, and Volume
Statistics and Measurement
Surface Area and Volume

Jean Brainard

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Jean Brainard
Dr. Jean M. Brainard is a freelance health and science writer and curriculum specialist living in central Ohio. She received a master’s degree from the Harvard School of Public Health and a doctorate in biomedical anthropology from the State University of New York at Binghamton. A former university professor, Dr. Brainard has written hundreds of textbook chapters and encyclopedia articles on a diversity of subjects, as well as numerous professional publications based on her own research.
Author of the chapter(s):

Animal Behavior
Behavior of Animals
Biomes, Ecosystems, and Communities
Chemical Basis of Life
Classification
Digestive and Excretory Systems
Diseases and the Body’s Defenses
Food and the Digestive System
Immune System and Disease
Mammals
Principles of Ecology
Reproductive System and Human Development
Reproductive Systems and Life Stages