Kristine Washburn,a quirky and adventurous physics and astronomy teacher, has an obvious passionfor her field of study. A math-lover since high school, she found inspiration fromthe Hubble Space Telescope and decided that astronomy was her thing. Today, shebrings that passion to EvCC.
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| "Why just take a picture and smile, when you can distort your face?" asked Washburn. |
“I waspretty consistently nerdy, I loved math, physics, astronomy, and computerscience,” said Washburn about her favorite school subjects. “I always perceivedmy family to be really weird and quirky compared to other people’s families, soit feels so comfortable to be studying something that’s weird and unintuitiveand not mainstream.”
Washburn’snerdiness becomes a superpower when she’s teaching. She begins her classes bybrewing a pot of coffee, chatting with her students, and basically being cool.
She believes in doing class activities, applyinglearning to real life situations, and occasionally telling funny anecdotes abouther five-foot tall astrology-loving Korean mother.
“I like going around and just chit chatting with students toget to know them. I think it makes learning easier when students know that aninstructor sees them as a whole entire person, not just a student,” saidWashburn.
"I love all the people I work with.
Teaching itself is amazing and I get to
meet such a huge variety of people."
"I love all the people I work with.
Teaching itself is amazing and I get to
meet such a huge variety of people."
There’s more than astronomy and physics in Washburn’s life,however. Not only does she love teaching, but she loves traveling, findingadventure, hanging out with her three-year-old daughter, modern art, andlearning new things. She’s travelled all over the world, done neutrino astronomy research inJapan, and worked at the NASA Space Grant Office. But if she could be anywhereright now, it would be here…. Or in space.
“I’m really happy here,” said Washburn. “However, if I had theoption of going into outer space, I would probably choose that because you wouldbe stupid not to choose that.”
Q&A
Q: What’syour favorite TV show?
A: The BigBang Theory. And that’s like, theexpected answer for the science teachers.
Q: Favoritefood?
A: That’shard, because I love to cook. I can’t even narrow it down to a genre. I’m gonnago with Korean food.
Q: What’syour favorite outdoor activity?
A: I wouldhave to say bike riding and climbing trees.
Q: What’syour favorite place?
A: I have somany favorite countries! Lately I’ve been thinking it would be so cool to goback to Morocco.
Q: What isyour favorite band or music group?
A: That’s ahard one too! Lately I’ve been really liking TV on theRadio.
Q: What’syour favorite season?
A: Summer,because I live in the Pacific Northwest.
Q: Favoritecolor?
A: Orange. Because it’s the underdog color, nobody likes orange.
Q: Do youplay an instrument?
A: I used toplay the clarinet. I wish I knew how to play the guitar.
Q: What aresome of your hobbies?
A: Well, Ihave a three-year-old daughter, so toddler activities. That doesn’t reallycount as a legitimate hobby, but I like taking my daughter to places where youjump on things, like bouncy castle places and trampoline places. I love tocook, that’s a huge hobby, and I love board games.
Q: Where do you see yourself in ten years?
A: I don’t know. Because I’d be totally content with still being here, but I’m open to the possibility of new things. Careers meander now, so I don’t know where mine will meander.
Q: What is one thing you want to do before you die?
A: Make sure I visit every continent.
Q: What is one thing you want to do before you die?
A: Make sure I visit every continent.
A day in the life of Kristine...
“I wake upat, like, five o’clock in the morning and for a couple hours, I read and I petthe dog. That’s my ‘me’ time. And then I wake up my kid and we go to school andI work generally from eight to five o’clock and then I pick up my daughter andwe go home and we play and we make dinner and we hang out. And that’s a generalday.”
Story by Lily Haight
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