AI's role inside and outside the classroom: An Albert Einstein Distinguished Educator Fellowship conversation

AI's role inside and outside the classroom: An Albert Einstein Distinguished Educator Fellowship conversation

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is something most people interact with every day, even if they don’t realize it. Maps apps, the predictive text you see when you’re writing an email or document, or the ad you get served on social media because you searched the web for something. While useful in our daily lives, AI is also beneficial in the classroom. As this episode is posted, students and educators from around the country are about to compete in the finals of the Presidential AI Challenge in Washington, D.C. In this episode of the ORISE Featurecast, Michael Holtz is joined by guest co-host Natasja Brown. Together they have a great conversation with Dr. Ann Schwartz, an Albert Einstein Distinguished Educator Fellowship alum, and Kyle Kuhlers, a current AEF Fellow. Join them for an interesting and inspiring conversation. Dr. Ann Schwartz is the Director of Emerging Tech Workforce Impact Fellow with the Maryland Department of Labor in the Office of the Secretary. Previously, she was the Assistant Director for Research Infrastructure in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) where she revitalized the development of the National Strategic Computing Reserve and led the US Delegation at the G7 Conference for Large Research Infrastructures. Previously, Ann was the Director of the Computing Community Consortium bridging computing research and policy. She began her work in policy as an Einstein Fellow at the National Science Foundation working on Computing Education and Workforce, building on her prior experience as a high school math and computer science teacher. Ann received her undergraduate degree from Cornell University in Operations Research and Industrial Engineering, her Master’s Degree in Secondary Education from George Washington University and her PhD in Curriculum and Instruction from George Mason University. Kyle Kuhlers has taught business and computer education for 22 years in rural and urban Iowa high schools, the last seven years at Waterloo Community School District in the Waterloo Career Center. The last four years have been exclusively Information Technology and Cybersecurity education. Before teaching, Mr. Kuhlers was an IT professional for 6 years at Oral-B Laboratories toothbrush manufacturing facility. He has a BBA from the University of Iowa in Finance and Marketing, along with teaching certifications in Business Education, Information Technology Endorsement, and Computer Science Endorsement. In 2023, Mr. Kuhlers completed the University of Louisville National Cybersecurity Teachers Academy Certification, which included 12 graduate credit hours of learning over two summers. The Albert Einstein Distinguished Educator Fellowship Act gives the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) the responsibility for managing the Albert Einstein Distinguished Educator Fellowship. The DOE Office of Science’s Office of Workforce Development for Teachers and Scientists (WDTS) manages this program for DOE in collaboration with the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE) and the partnering Federal agencies, which, at the time of this recording, included the Department of Defense (DOD), the Department of Energy (DOE), the Library of Congress (LOC), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the US Geological Survey (USGS), the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and the National Science Foundation (NSF). The DOE sponsors five placements in congressional offices. To learn more about the Albert Einstein Distinguished Educator Fellowship, visit https://science.osti.gov/wdts/einstein.

Honing new skills as an ORISE Research Services Administration

Maggie Mangas is a former ORISE Research Program Participant whose fellowship was with the Health Research Services Administration (HRSA) Maternal, Infant and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) Program. Mangas was excited about the opportunity to develop her quantitative research skills. Her background includes conducting qualitative research. Mangas was drawn to the ORISE fellowship because she saw an opportunity to be in a government setting, along with this data training component. She says her mentor was fantastic about creating an environment to hone her desired new skills. Hear more about Mangas’s ORISE experience, some of the projects she was part of, and how she became interested in science. Read more about Mangas here: https://orise.orau.gov/people/success-stories/2026/maggie-mangas.html

Leveling up in the classroom: Albert Einstein Fellows discuss gamification and education

Gamification in the classroom applies game design elements, like points, badges, leaderboard, and leveling up, to increase student engagement and improving learning. Gamification does not mean turning everything into a game, though. As our Albert Einstein Distinguished Educator Fellows discuss in this episode of the ORISE Featurecast, gamification is selective. Natasja Brown, guest co-host for this cohort of AEF Fellows, and host Michael Holtz are joined by Shane Wines and Steve Kirsche, two experts on gamification in the classroom. Dr. Shane Wines is a distinguished educator, researcher, and leader in computer science education. With over a decade of experience teaching and coordinating middle and high school computer science programs, he currently serves as both the Computer Science Coordinator and a high school teacher for Calvert County Public Schools. He facilitates professional development for the Maryland Center for Computing Education and Code in the Schools, mentors computer science educators, and was named Calvert County's 2020 STEM Teacher of the Year. A recipient of the Maryland Governor's Citation, Dr. Wines also served as president of the Maryland Chapter of the Computer Science Teachers Association, leading a statewide network of over 500 educators who advocate for accessible and high-quality computer science instruction. Steve Kirsche is a middle school science program specialist for Saint Johns County School District in Florida. He previously taught math and science at both the middle school and high school levels and served as an Albert Einstein Fellow from 2019-2020 in the Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate at NASA. Steve earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Upon graduating, he was commissioned in the United States Navy as a Surface Warfare Officer. He served at commands in the United States and Japan and is a veteran of Desert Shield/Desert Storm. The Albert Einstein Distinguished Educator Fellowship Act gives the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) the responsibility for managing the Albert Einstein Distinguished Educator Fellowship. The DOE Office of Science’s Office of Workforce Development for Teachers and Scientists (WDTS) manages this program for DOE in collaboration with the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE) and the partnering Federal agencies, which, at the time of this recording, included the Department of Defense (DOD), the Department of Energy (DOE), the Library of Congress (LOC), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the US Geological Survey (USGS), the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and the National Science Foundation (NSF). The DOE sponsors five placements in congressional offices. To learn more about the Albert Einstein Distinguished Educator Fellowship, visit https://science.osti.gov/wdts/einstein.

The rewards of mentorship: A conversation with Scott Crawford, Ph.D., at NETL

Keri Cagle, Ed.D., ORISE Director, joins Michael Holtz as special co-host for the ORISE Featurecast. In this episode, they talk to Scott Crawford, Ph.D., a research physical scientist at the U.S. Department of Energy National Energy Technology Lab in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, who has served as an ORISE mentor and was once an ORISE research program participant. NETL is dedicated to innovating and accelerating the nation’s energy solutions in hydrocarbon, geothermal energy and critical minerals production. Crawford’s research is focused on developing low-cost sensors for economically critical metals, as well as hydrogen sensing development, and serves as the responsible person for the X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy lab at NETL. In this conversation we discuss Crawford’s career trajectory, the importance of mentorship, and how ORISE has been a key partner in the success of NETL and other research participation programs. To learn more about NETL, visit https://netl.doe.gov/ To learn more about ORISE research participation programs, visit https://orise.orau.gov/internships-fellowships/index.html

Understanding the power of data: A conversation about CEDR with Sara Howard, Ph.D.

Sara Howard, Ph.D., is an epidemiologist for the ORISE Health Studies group. She is co-project manager of the Comprehensive Epidemiologic Data Resource (CEDR), the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) data repository relating to the health effects for DOE workers, contractors, subcontractors, former workers, as well as the communities around DOE sites. Through CEDR, data is made available to researchers, educators and students, whether they are asking questions specific to radiation or are learning computer science, programming and statistics. Having a robust data resource like CEDR is important, Howard said, because science evolves. More questions may be asked. “Maybe we want to go back to this historical information, and maybe it's applying a new dosimetry model to the original exposure estimates and seeing how that compares against to what was already calculated. Maybe it is asking a completely new question or analyzing with a new method. That can get us even further in science. But you can't do any of that if you don't have data.” To learn more about CEDR, visit: https://oriseapps.orau.gov/cedr/