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Science Dept Bios

Marilyn Havlik
[Department Chair]

Marilyn Havlik was born and raised in Chicago and is proud of the more than 30 years she has taught biology in the Chicago Public Schools. Mrs. Havlik has always enjoyed teaching and doing science and has inspired the same attitude in her students. The University of Chicago recognized Mrs. Havlik's contribution to Science by selecting her for an Honorary Lifetime Membership to Sigma Xi – the Scientific Research Society. Mrs. Havlik also enjoyed working in the research labs at Rush University Medical Center during the summer. This endeavor was facilitated by grants from the American Society for Cell Biology and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. She spent several summers as the teacher Facilitator for the University of Chicago's Summer Seminars in Biology. In addition Mrs. Havlik is a Woodrow Wilson Fellow, she has never forgotten the 4 weeks she spent at Princeton University studying Genetics. It remains her favorite area of biology. In 1996 Mrs. Havlik was honored as the Outstanding Biology Teacher from Illinois and is now Chairperson of the Selection Committee that chooses the annual winner of that award. In 2006 Mrs. Havlik was selected to be a Neil Campbell Fellow and spent a week in Montana digging for dinosaurs.

Email: havlikm@wpcp.org

Jackie Barge

Ms. Barge, a National Board Certified Teacher, received her Bachelor of Arts in Biology from the University of Chicago. After first getting involved in public education as a parent volunteer, she went on to earn a Master of Arts in Teaching from National Louis University. Ms. Barge started with CPS at Reilly Elementary School, on Chicago's northwest side, where she developed and implemented a hands-on science curriculum for middle school students. During this time, Ms. Barge began many long standing collaborations in curriculum development with educational groups, such as Yerkes Observatory, the Depaul Nasa Center and Hands On Universe. After ten years at Reilly, Ms. Barge left to become part of the original faculty group at Payton. She has continued her involvement with educational groups while at Payton and has added collaborations such as UIC-Fermilab's Quarknet group and the Beyond the Solar System project from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. Ms. Barge has also developed and implemented the Astronomy @ Payton outreach program which provides an astronomy field trip experience at Payton for elementary school students.

Email: bargej@wpcp.org
Website: www.40two.info/barge/

Nikolaus Barge

Mr. Nikolaus Barge is currently teaching both Earth/Space Science and Physics. He has earned a B.S. in Physics, along with a minor in Astronomy, from Ball State University. While at Ball State he tutored part time in math and science, which led him to pursue a career in education. Following his undergraduate graduation, Mr. Barge began attending graduate school at Northwestern University, where he earned an M.S.Ed. degree in secondary science education.

Email: bargen@wpcp.org

Sam Dyson

In 1995 Mr. Dyson earned his B.A. in Physics from Yale where he also learned to speak Zulu. For the following year while living in South Africa, he improved his Zulu skills during his first year of science teaching. Seeking the experience of professional research, he later worked at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics while furthering his teaching experience as a TA for two Harvard undergraduate astronomy and physics courses. Ultimately, answering the call to full-time teaching, he moved to Chicago as Payton was opening in 2000, having completed his Masters in Education at Harvard University one month prior. At Payton, as at the start of his teaching career, he continues teaching and learning physics and Zulu, as through a two-way South African student exchange in 2007. Upon returning from a one-semester Golden Apple sabbatical, during which he endeavored to better understand why calculus works, Mr. Dyson strives to contribute to Payton's continued efforts to nurture learners.

Email: dysons@wpcp.org

Maggie Folk

Maggie Folk graduated from Illinois Wesleyan University with a biology major and a secondary education minor. She received her Masters of Biology at Northeastern Illinois University. In the Spring 0f 2006, she completed the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards program. She started with Walter Payton's first class in the fall of 2000 as a biology teacher and currently teaches both Advance Placement Biology and Honors Chemistry. Ms. Folk comes to Walter Payton College Prep from Milledgeville High School where she taught freshman biology, chemistry, and advanced biology. Highlights of her career at WPCP include coaching the girls' volleyball team through an undefeated season, traveling to Lucerne, Switzerland with Payton students, and participating in a travel program for teachers to Kauai, Hawaii.

Email: folkm@wpcp.org

Walt Kinderman

Walt Kinderman spent five years in the US Navy and was decorated for service in the Persian Gulf War from 1991-1994. Following his military service, Walt moved to Chicago where he attended DePaul University and received both his Bachelors of Science (Chemistry) and his Masters of Science (Biochemistry). Walt is currently a student a Loyola University, pursuing accreditation in the CPS Physics Endorsement Program. Walt also coaches the Boy's Tennis team at Payton—a team that has won the city championship three of the past four years.

Recently, Walt received an Oppenheimer Teacher Incentive Grant for the construction of a roof-top garden at Payton. Additionally, Walt is a founding member of Greening the High School Campus, a cooperative project with high schools throughout the Chicagoland area and DePaul University's Environmental Science program, whose focus is greening the high school experience through action research on power conservation, recycling programs, and environmental analysis of soil, water and air.

Email: kindermanw@wpcp.org

Bill Lyons

Mr. Lyons has lived in a national forest, a national recreation area, a “very small place” in Africa and has traveled to six of the seven continents. Before being afflicted by this travel bug, Mr. Lyons spent K through BS in Ann Arbor, graduating from The University of Michigan’s School of Engineering with a degree in Mechanical Engineering. As an engineer in a geomembrane manufacturing plant, he helped build large trash bags. Very large trash bags. 27 acre trash bags, otherwise known as lined landfills and also water reservoir liners and roofing membranes. After getting his mind out of the garbage, he spent many years on the roofs of many Chicago landmarks designing and installing 1.5 megawatts of photovoltaic systems, helping to make Chicago one of the first cities to have over a megawatt of photovoltaic generation installed within its city limits. After seeing the light, Mr. Lyons returned to teaching. He teaches physics, engineering and climbing. Hobbies include biking, climbing, photography and converting old internal combustion cars to electric. There are unconfirmed rumors of subjecting hapless students to physics humor.

Email: lyonsw@wpcp.org

Gloria Ma

Gloria Ma started her teaching career at Payton in 2003. She completed her student teaching at Eisenhower High School in Decatur and graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with a major in Biology and minor in Secondary Education. She enjoys playing tennis, rollerblading, listening to music, and cooking. Living with constant disappointment is a way of life for her as she is a big Cubs fan, but she does pride herself on still being the only sane member of the science department.

Email: mag@wpcp.org

Matt Silvia

"Education is the acquisition of the art of utilization of knowledge." These are the words of the great educational leader and Harvard professor Alfred Whitehead and epitomize my teaching. My goal is to create an environment where each student will develop the motivation, problem-solving skills, and reflective metacognitive abilities to apply physics knowledge; and develop into independent learners possessing the skill set necessary to be successful in this new millennium where each adult will change jobs and careers many times in their lifetime. I am an example of such a career path. After graduating from Brown University with a BS in Electrical Engineering, I spent five years in the Information Technology services industry developing software and managing projects for clients ranging from General Motors to Chicago Public Schools. During this work I found that I had a passion for education and began exploring options to make a career change. I accomplished this through the GATE program at Northwestern University, where I earned my MS in Education. Before teaching at Walter Payton College Prep, I spent four invigorating years at Farragut Career Academy located on Chicago’s West Side. I am an athlete at heart and after a very successful career as an offensive lineman at Brown I have reinvented myself as an athlete and compete at the elite amateur level in cycling races. I also enjoy reading the great novels; my personal favorite is Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy.

Email: silviam@wpcp.org

TEACHER BIOS

Marilyn Havlik
Jackie Barge
Nikolaus Barge
Sam Dyson
Maggie Folk
William Lyons
Walt Kinderman
Gloria Ma
Matt Silvia

COURSES

Astronomy
Biology
ARISE Biology
Chemistry
Earth and Space Sciences
Human Anatomy and Physiology
Freshmen (ARISE) Physics
Physics
Advanced Placement Biology
Advanced Placement Physics C
Advanced Placement Physics B
Advanced Placement Chemistry