Sandra Bruesch
Gretchen Whitney High School
Cerritos, California

Sandra Bruesch teaches her high school students using a method she calls "guided oral inquiry." She begins by giving students a small amount of information, then guides them down a path of discovery with carefully selected questions that follow logically and sequentially from the information given. She pays close attention to each student, monitoring their eyes and body language to judge their level of comprehension and comfort with the material.

"Sometimes our system of education, whether inadvertently or by design, filters students out of higher mathematics. I take all comers into my calculus and statistics classes, because I feel that this is my last chance to have the student appreciate, master and enjoy mathematics both for its intrinsic beauty and for its many practical applications."

Highlights:

• Teaches students "kinesthetically" through the use of graphing calculators, making model rockets, creating machines that turn circular motion into simple harmonic motion, and constructing a dam project.

• Has worked with students for six years in the National Space Design Competition at Kennedy Space Center in Florida and spent summers teaching and chaperoning the competition.

• Led Whitney High School's Academic Decathlon Team to first place in the Southeast Region.

• Helped Whitney High School students achieve the distinction of having the highest SAT scores in California.

• ABC Unified School District Mentor/Teacher.

• Winner of the first annual (1989) Jaime Escalante Mathematics Teacher Award presented by the Los Angeles Educational Partnership (LAEP).

• Member of American Mensa, Triple Nine Society, and Prometheus Society.