About Mr. Sutherland
Red Square, Moscow, Russia
I believe that I am an experience junkie and that this allows me to impart my love of the world and science to my students. As I see the world through the lens of my life, it has been all about different experiences and travel; as these are my passions. Like a junkie I need more, fortunately I have had the luck and perseverance to allow me to continue my ‘junkie express’ across the planet. This is then related to my students and the passion I show for the world and its wonders does affect my students.
Science to the middle school student is a like watching paint dry and as about as enjoyable as having bamboo inserted under your fingernails. I am not going to proclaim that I am the Messiah coming to save our nation’s middle school students, but I watch the kids faces when I talk about the world and why I love science and see a spark kindled in the eyes of some of my students.
The world is an awesome place, and I explain to my students that I teach and love science because of what I have seen and experienced around the world. These experiences leave me with questions about why things are the way they are and how they got that that way; just like young kids we are all natural scientists trying to figure out the world around us. This is my response to that kid that asks why am I learning this, the world is awesome and science explains that awesomeness!
Being an experience junkie has been great for my personal life and I firmly believe that my passion for the world and all its wonder pervades to the students I teach. You can teach a curriculum, but to have experienced it and to pass on that experience to the students that you teach is a very rewarding experience. A friend who is a teacher once told me many years ago; “if I make a difference in a child’s life, then I have had a successful year”. I believe that the experience junkie in me does make that difference in more than one child a year, and that makes my life even richer for the experience.
EDUCATION
8/2010 to 7/2012 University of Colorado, Denver, GPA: 4.00/ 7.00
Masters in Secondary Science Education
9/2005 to 6/2007 University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, GPA: 4.00/ 7.00
Teacher in Residence Program
12/1999 to 12/2000 James Cook University, Australia. Post Graduate Research, GPA: 4.00/ 1st Class
Thesis: A GIS Approach to Modeling Holocene Carbonate Sediments on the North Queensland Margin, Australia
6/1996 to 12/1999 James Cook University, Australia. Bachelor of Science, GPA: 3.90/ 6.50
(Major: Geology, Major: Spatial Analysis)
1985-86 and 1992-94 Royal Australian Air Force RSTT,
Motor Transport Fitter/Aeronautical Avionics Engineering
