After geosystems teacher Genyne Malin left to have a baby, geosystems substitute Robert Mulvaney joined the LB family on Nov. 7, excited to share his passion for science and technology with students. Mulvaney discovered his appreciation for the science and engineering fields early on in his life.

“I was fortunate enough to have several wonderful teachers during my formative years,” Mulvaney said. “They fostered my sense of curiosity and helped me develop the skills to not only appreciate what the sciences had to offer, but also gave me the tools to actively pursue different interests within these disciplines.”

He also credits his mother for supporting and nurturing his interest all these years.

When he was younger, she would buy him rocks and minerals, microscopes, books and other scientific instruments. His interest developed over time by the encouragement of his teachers and events that occurred during his childhood, including the eruption of Mount St. Helens in 1980 and the Space Shuttle program.

“I am at heart a curious, inquisitive person and feel that there is something to learn or explore in any scientific discipline,” Mulvaney said.
In his free time, Mulvaney enjoys working on science and engineering projects.

Among these projects is a headset. Using a pair of ski goggles, cardboard from a shoebox and duct tape, he constructed a basic frame for the goggles.

He then built in a pair of small credit-card style magnifiers into a lens array that was seated between the goggles and the frame. This project took him less than three hours, and he was assisted by his 8-year-old twin sons.

“I have long been interested in the idea of using different technologies for educational purposes and a VR headset was a manifestation of this thinking,” Mulvaney said.

Mulvaney’s projects demonstrate his dedication and interest in science and engineering, as well as his imagination. He has built tools and gadgets for his classroom out of materials including balloons, projectors and infrared pens.

“To me, one of the most remarkable things about the sciences it its capacity to stimulate the imagination,” Mulvaney said.

He also built a home-made smartboard computer interface by syncing a Wii controller to his laptop via bluetooth in order to use it with a projector and an infrared pen to project an interactive computer screen onto any surface. For another, he is awaiting approval from the FAA for his plan to launch a telemetry package for a weather balloon experiment 10 and 20 miles above campus. He hopes to broaden students’ perspectives on science and engineering through his experiments and projects in the classroom.

“To a student I would say ‘Look up at the sky. Look at the immensity of life around you at any point in time. Look at the highway road cut rock and imagine its story,’” Mulvaney said. “‘Ask questions. Participate. Be curious. You just have to take the time to look around you once in a while.’”