John Ristvey

John D. Ristvey, Jr. Manages McREL’s education and public outreach (E/PO) team. He specializes in technical and science education expertise, instructional materials design, and professional development. Mr. Ristvey holds an M.S. in Secondary Science Education from the University of Houston-Clear Lake, Texas and a B.S. in Biology from Grove City College, Pennsylvania along with certifications in teaching secondary science. A Senior Director at McREL, he is responsible for managing the work and resources of multiple contracts including education and public outreach for NASA’s Dawn mission with UCLA, EPOXI mission with University of Maryland, and Stardust/NEXT mission with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Mr. Ristvey is currently the PI for a National Science Foundation-funded instructional materials development project, NanoTeach (#DRL-0822128), which is developing and testing professional development that combines an instructional design framework with nanoscale science content using multiple delivery methods for high school science teachers. Partnering with the Stanford Nanofabrication Facility and Georgia Tech. for content expertise and ASPEN Associates for external evaluation, he has led a development team to develop a year-long professional development experience for high school teachers. He was PI for A NanoLeap into New Science (# ESI-0426401), which translated current nanoscale science and technology research into content appropriate for high school students. He is also the co-principal investigator for Visualizing Science with Adapted Curriculum Enhancements grant with the US Department of Education (R324A080096) and Co-Principal Investigator, Cosmic Chemistry: Engaging Summer Learning for High School Students Sponsored by a U. S. Department of Education Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education Research IES (84-305A2009-2). He has co-written two online courses and co-facilitated online professional development coursework in Earth Systems Science for middle school teachers in partnership with the Colorado School of Mines for three years.

Before joining McREL, Ristvey was a science teacher at the Clear Creek Independent School District, in Houston, Texas. He was responsible for preparation and instruction of students in grades six, seven and eight. His duties included: chairing the faculty council of the National Junior Honor Society; participation of the development of the curriculum for the Seabrook Science Magnet Program and Learning Center, and provided professional development at the campus and district levels.