About Me
I am James R. (Randy) Monroe and I love the Planet Earth, Science, Teaching, Singing and Performing!
I am currently employed by the Mt. Diablo Unified School District. I teach 6th grade Earth Science Teacher at National Blue Ribbon Award winning and California Distinguished Foothill Middle School in Walnut Creek, CA. I spent 5 of my 8 years as a Science Teacher and the Gifted and Talented Education(GATE) Coordinator at Glenbrook Middle School in Concord, CA. where I was awarded “Teacher of the Year†twice in 2006 by both Prudential Realty and Wal-Mart. Glenbrook is a Title-One(federally designated at least 40% of students receiving free and/or reduced meals) site with approximately 75% receiving free and/or reduced lunch. I have instituted numerous standards-based field trips for all 3 types of middle school science classes including Earth, Life, and Physical Sciences and generated funding through grants and fund-raisers. I have and continue to work with numerous scientific organizations and my field trips excursions include but are not limited to:• San Jose's Tech Museum • Chabot Space and Science Center • Monterey Bay Aquarium and MBA Research Institute • DNA Day with Lawrence Berkeley Labs and... • The Department of Energy's Joint Genome Institute • Math, Science, and Physics Day at Great America • Black Diamond Mines and The Dow Wetlands • Marine Science Institute's Day on the Delta(oceanographic sampling) • Saturday I-Max Science Movies: "Volcanoes of the Deep" and "Roving Mars". • Cal Academy of Sciences Steinhart Aquarium and... Ocean Beach San Francisco, CA • The Oakland Museum • GATE SF Museum of Modern Art....and my personal creation 3 days/2nights at Mt Lassen Volcanic National Park and surrounding area Including: Shasta Caverns, Turtle Bay Exploration Park, Spattercone Trail, Subway Lava Tube, Burney Falls, Hat Creek, Mt. Lassen Devastated Area, Mt. Lassen Summit, and Mt. Lassen Sulfur Works(hot springs, fumaroles, and mud pots).
I have coordinated the district’s 10 middle schools, three annual 6th grade GATE Science Days with:• Lawrence Hall of Sciences in Berkeley • Chemistry Day with Dow Chemical and Concord High School's AP Chemistry Class • Chabot Space and Science Center in Oakland…and I continue as a Lead Teacher each summer in the district’s GATE Summer Program.
I have been working the last five years with biologist Chris Miller and the Contra Costa County Vector Control and Mosquito Abatement rearing and raising the threatened/endangered Sacramento Perch, in the classroom and at home. With funding from a new grant, and as the only teacher on the governing board to East Bay Trout in the Classroom, I rear and raise Oakland native Rainbow Trout, along with Tule Perch, Sacramento Blackfish, Split-tail, Stickleback and Sturgeon.
I am on the board of The Contra Costa County Association of Science and Math Educators (CASME) based in Walnut Creek and assist in the development of our annual "Educators Day" at the Lindsay Wildlife Museum.
I also have moonlighted for the past 7 years in a nationally acclaimed Van Halen Tribute act called HOT FOR TEACHER www.HFTROCKS.com that has been fortunate enough to perform with VH's bassist Michael Anthony and helped to raise large amounts of revenue for various Northern California and National Charities including but not limited to:• HFT are proud sponsors of The California Science Teacher's Association(CSTA) • The Alameda County Battered Women and Children Fund ($2000.00) • Multiple Sclerosis (assisted $245,000.00) • Hands on Bay Area ($8,000.00) • Hurricane Katrina ($45,000.00) • Donors Choose fund-raising organization that donates to education($100,000.00) • Manteca Kiwanis ($5,000.00) • Abandoned Children of Nicaragua ($5,000.00)
I was invited as a VIP in January 2006 with my family, to NASA's Cape Canaveral Florida to witness the launch of the New Horizons Probe to Pluto, Charon, and the Kuiper Belt The Lockheed Martin Atlas V that launched New Horizons on January 19, 2006, was the fastest ship to ever leave Earth! My father James Christy discovered Pluto's largest moon Charon in 1978 and named it in honor of my mother, Charlene. I was also given the opportunity to tour the Space Shuttle Program which included the science and cargo pods and rigging for the International Space Station, external fuel tank and solid rocket boosters and culminated with a walk under the Atlantis. I am on the New Horizons Education Team with many other teachers and Heather Weir and Kerry Beisser.
In the summer 2006, I worked through Industrial Initiatives for Science and Math Educators or IISME at Lockheed Martin! I was a Systems Engineer working with the Multiple Kill Vehicle (MKV); part of US missile defense. When my father left the US Naval Observatory he went to work for Hughes Aircraft in missile defense, now Ratheon and I wanted to learn about some of the areas that he worked. I studied infrared imaging, focal plane arrays and cryo-coolers and created curricula to use in the classroom with skills and information from a previous workshop at Lawrence Livermore Labs and the national ignition firing system(NIF) using night vision goggles and a CO2 detector with an IR spectrometer cell, to monitor greenhouse gases.
In November 2006, I began collaboration with Defenders of Wildlife to advocate the return of the gray wolf to northern California. In December, I flew to San Diego to meet with the California Wolf Center and involve myself with plans for a facility in northern California.
I also, met with Dr. Horst Felbeck of Scripp’s Oceanographic Institute furthering my studies of hydrothermal vent ecology and chemosynthetic life forms and have been following the work of Penn State’s Ridge 2000, Dr. John Delaney of the Neptune Project, Dr. Cindy Lee Van Dover and Scripp's and Wood’s Hole Oceanographic Institutes, and Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBRAI).
In June 2007, I began working initially through IISME with the Department of Energy’s Joint Genome Institute to sample thermophiles from the hot springs of Yellowstone under the guidance Dr. Phil Hugenholtz, the discoverer Obsidian Pool’s OP-11 in 1997 and a new lineage of thermophillic bacteria. I obtained a special permit through U.S. Fish and Wildlife and was guided by Dr. John Spear of the Colorado School of Mines, Further information was provided by Dr. Richard Castenholtz of the University of Oregon, Dr. Anna Lois Reysenbach from Portland State and Montana State’s Thermo-Biology Institute. I am currently working in collaboration with JGI, Dr. Phil Hugenholtz and the Microbial Ecology Team studying OP-11 using, polymerase chain reactions (PCRs), gels, and fluorescence in situ hybryidization (FISH) to photograph and sequence.
While at Yellowstone, I also met with Dr. Douglas Smith, Chief Biologist for the Wolf Reintroduction whose work I have been following since 1995, continuing my efforts to see the wolf back in the wild of California; particularly in the northern part of the state; Lassen and Cascade Volcanic Range and Klamath Ranges.
I have also begun a relationship with NASA’s JPL Principal Europa Mission and Cassini Investigator Bob Pappalardo in reference to possible extra-terrestrial organisms on Jupiter’s icy moon. In October 2007, I met briefly with Caltech’s Dr. Michael Brown and then with Bob to discuss Planetary Explorations.
I am developing curricula in a number of areas with UC Berkeley’s WISE/TELS Program, an Inquiry-Based Online website (www.wise.berkeley.edu) including:• Controversy In Space: Is Pluto a Planet? • Hydrothermal Vent Systems • Wolves in the Backyard of California • What is Life and Where Do We Find It? (Europa)Stay tuned because there will be much more to come...!
