My parents used to hide my books to get me to finish my chores. That probably tells you most of what you need to know about me.

‍ ‍ Growing up, I wanted to build Data, the android from Star Trek: The Next Generation. Not become him, build him. Even as a kid, that distinction mattered to me. I wanted the engineering, not the fantasy. That's basically the reason I ended up chasing down real science my whole life, including the science hiding inside stories that had nothing to do with science on the surface.

‍ I've been working with kids in educational settings since 2004, running a homeschool co-op since 2009, and I homeschooled four kids all the way through to college readiness. Somewhere in there I also picked up engineering coursework, a chunk of graduate-level education study, and a long-running second life as a forensic genealogist, tracking down real family histories the same way a detective works a case.

‍ ‍ Here's what I actually believe about teaching science: you don't get a kid excited about photosynthesis by starting with photosynthesis. You get them there through the book they already love, the movie they've already watched twice, the story they can't stop thinking about. Once they're already invested, the real science underneath it is what keeps them there.

‍ That's what I'm building here. Real science, real data, real research, hiding inside the stories kids already can't put down.

‍ I teach as Mrs. J. My co-teacher is a robot named Watson, yes, really, and if you want to know more about him, that's its own page.