Dudley Friskopp
Junior and Senior High School, Nebraska
I am a Nebraska native in my 35th year of teaching in a small rural K-12 district where I serve as the entire science department as well as the shooting coach. Although being the sole science teacher means many preps. per day, I have always enjoyed teaching all branches of science as it keeps me in tune with a wide variety of disciplines and it is quite challenging. My teaching experience also includes four summers as an instructor for a NSF-SSTP field institute in grassland ecology for high ability high school students handling both the classroom and field studies in mammology and herpetology and 25+ years as an instructor of biology and geology in the University of Nebraska at Kearney's spring trip courses in desert studies to the southwest U.S.
Academically, I have a BS in zoology from the University of Nebraska at Lincoln and a MS in Education from the University of Nebraska at Kearney. I have had wide exposure to field experiences in biology and geology of the southwest US and Great Plains and have served as a field collector for the University of Nebraska State Museum and the University of Nebraska Kearney collections. It was during a summer course in Nebraska geology that I meant the professor who alerted me to the School of Rocks opportunity.
Outside of teaching, I enjoy a variety of outdoor activities. For the past 28 years I have spent part of my summers as a commercial whitewater guide on various rivers in Utah and the Colorado River in Grand Canyon, Arizona. Living "on the river" has become a part of my life that I can't seem to do without; a delightful addiction. It is a wonderful blend of showing people the wonders of the Earth, helping them with the interpretation of it all, and living with no roof over your head. I also spend a lot of time hunting, fishing and working a small ranch my wife and I own in the Nebraska Sandhills.
I view my selection to participate in the 2009 School of Rocks as a watershed chance to participate in a world-class research effort. To be aboard the successor ship to the "Glomar Challenger" and the "Challenger" is truly an honor. I look forward to the experience and I am looking forward to sharing it with my students.
