I want to be a force that inspires students to see the world as one interconnected fabric, and to help them find their own place within it.”
Alex’s Story
Ever since he first watched The Magic School Bus and Bill Nye the Science Guy as a child, Alex Steinkamp has been excited about science. “Science was where magic was to be found, where you could predict the future and reveal the past.” He was inspired by his high school physics teacher to make physics his main area of study in college. “He presented the material in such a way that I could see the true beauty of the subject. I started to understand that quite literally, all things are connected, down to the scale of an atom out to the scale of galaxies.”
Alex graduated with a BS in physics from Harvey Mudd College, where he was awarded the Jon A. Wunderlich Prize for Creativity in Physics Research. After working in a biophysics laboratory as a post baccalaureate intern for a year, he completed his Masters of Education at Portland State University, graduating cum laude. Through the support of the Knowles Teaching Fellowship, he gained a deep appreciation for the importance of teacher leadership and collaboration in the pursuit of effective teaching based on student inquiry.
While working in Olympia, Washington for the first six years of his career, he helped coordinate fellows from around the region in visiting and observing instruction at different schools, and led a Critical Friends group at his own school. Alex has been working in Japan at international schools since 2019, and continues to push for effective collaboration within schools while cultivating the diverse learners in his math and science classrooms.
Alex believes that supporting good teachers should be a priority for our society, “as they touch hundreds of students’ lives throughout their careers and have an incalculable value to our society.”