Steve Grupp has been an instructor of various natural and physical sciences at six Puget Sound area community colleges for ten years. Now he is the full time physical science instructor at Everett Community College. Prior to teaching he was employed in oil exploration as a geophysicist working in Utah, Nevada, Oregon, Colorado, Texas and Oklahoma. He also worked as a project geophysicist at a Seattle area geotechnical firm. His educational background includes earning a Bachelor of Science degree in geology at California State University Northridge (the site of the recent Northridge earthquake) and a Master of Science degree from Colorado School of Mines in geophysics. Incidentally, he also attended Los Angeles Pierce College where like you; he worked on an Associate's degree. After working in industry for about 15 years he returned to academia to teach. And also returned to the Puget Sound area where he had started elementary school in Bellevue long ago. So as you may have guessed he has done some traveling but of all the places he's lived, he likes the Pacific Northwest better than any other. It has remarkable geology which is complicated enough to hold any geologist's interest for life. The Northwest Geological Society has honored him by allowing him the opportunity to serve as their 1999 president. Since starting teaching he has come to realize that the best education seems to always occur when the students become very active in their own learning process. Consequently, his philosophy of teaching tries to encourage active learning on the student's part whether it is in the classroom or online. It is his hope for his students that they will come to share his excitement for earth science as he shares his experiences and they learn more about the Earth in the classroom, online and in the field.