Tug Sezen

Mr. Sezen is currently teaching Physics, Chemistry, and ROP Web Publishing & Multimedia. He is the coordinator for the newly restructured Math Engineering Science Academy (MESA). He agrees with numerous studies that show real-world research which allows students to form hypothesis, test their own theories is best for teaching science. He believes with hands on science students will retain more of what they learn, look at science with greater enthusiasm, perform high-level reasoning tasks better and solve real science problems more adeptly. He tries to teach science in context by using Project Based Learning. He has always attempted to integrate technology into his science curriculum. He was one of the first teachers to have his students use Internet in their research back in early 1990's. His science students use computer interfaces, probes, software to gather and graph data in real time that gives them immediate feedback. With immediate feedback his students can test their hypothesis and ask "what if" type of questions for their own synthesis of scientific concepts.

Before coming to Freedom High School, Mr. Sezen was a science/math teacher and technology coordinator at John Swett High School. With the help of a consultant he wired computer network and helped to get the school on Internet.

Mr. Sezen is the cofounder of the NASA Space Settlement Design Contest with long term association with NASA Ames Research Center. This contest recently won an award by NASA headquarters and Mr. Sezen also received "Impact" award by Contra Costa Office of Education. Mr. Sezen has produced a long list of Web based curriculum materials for this contest including many Java , Macromedia Director and Flash based programs. Recently he produced an 8 week long on-line course for the NASA Space Settlement contestants. Mr. Sezen was invited to do a presentation about Orbital Space Settlements representing NASA at the Astronomy Conference at Morrison Auditorium in San Francisco.

Mr. Sezen received "Innovation in Math Science Education" award by Industry Initiatives in Math Science Education (IISME) for developing curriculum materials to teach computational fluid dynamics to High School students. He developed a wind tunnel for overhead projection display of air flow and computer programs for teaching scientific computational methods.

Mr. Sezen was invited to give workshops at Internet Conference at San Jose State University. He was a speaker at business-education conference organized by Conference Board to do a presentation representing Industry Initiatives in Math Science Education (IISME).

Mr. Sezen was awarded a fellowship by Department of Energy to do research in Proton Induced x-ray Emission (PIXE) and Ion Beam Tomography at Sandia National Laboratories, Livermore. He developed scientific software for PIXE data analysis. Through a fellowship by Research Corporation he participated in the research involving carbon encapsulated magnetic materials, nano tubes and Fullerenes at San Jose State University. He conducted experiments in x-ray crystallography, Mossbauer Spectroscopy, and Magnetometry. He developed statistical methods for data analysis. He developed methods to measure electrical resistivity of Fullerenes. He was invited to do a presentation in Tucson, Arizona Partners in Science Conference on "the magnetic properties of carbon encapsulated materials".

Mr. Sezen through a fellowship by Industry Initiatives in Science and Math Education (IISME) at Lockheed developed computer program and interface for environmental monitoring of Metrology Department. The program through communication with microprocessors in environmental monitors could gather data about humidity and temperature continuously, store data, graph data and alert if environmental conditions exceeded certain parameters.

Mr. Sezen also worked as a consultant for various projects including physics educational software development. He also developed a web site for a periodical publisher.

Mr. Sezen is married; he has a daughter. He enjoys tennis, traveling, all kinds of music, beaches, and reading.

To improve science and math instruction in the public schools:

from "The False Crisis in Science Education", Scientific American, October 1999

You may contact Mr. Sezen by: