A little bit about Me.
Edward Harrison, Science Teacher
This is my 3rd year teaching a homeschool science program on my farm in North Central Florida. It's my 50th year as a science educator. My class consists of my grandchildren and several neighboring children. The class this year is High School Earth Science. In past years I have taught both Biology and Chemistry.
I'm originally a New York native and have earned multiple degrees and teaching certificates from several universities along the way, including Long Island University, Cal Berkeley, and Nova Southeastern University in Florida. My teaching career began in the 1970s by teaching a HS Vocational Agriculture Program focusing on Equine Animal Science. Many of my students went on to become Professional Horsemen and Women, Animal Care Professionals and Veterinarians. In 1980, I moved to Florida and taught science in a few different schools. I also started an outreach program that catered to underprivileged children in the surrounding area. It was a sort of "school on wheels", a jazzed up bus that took students out to different ecosystems in Florida to learn about environmental science. In 1998, I sold it to my staff. They took it and created a multi million dollar corporation called Build a Field Trip.
After selling the business, I moved to California in 2000. Once there, I taught in Fairfield for a year before moving on to Sir Francis Drake High School, where I developed Project Based Skills and continued to teach until 2011. At that point I was forced to take retirement due to a series of minor heart attacks. Since I wasn’t aware of how minor they would end up being or how I would recover, I moved back to Florida to spend time with my family. In Florida, after a full recovery, I created yet another outreach business program. This time it was a called The Science Bus that would visit underprivileged schools to take students on board and teach them a whole science program. https://www.ocala.com/story/news/2011/10/13/all-aboard-the-science-bus/31453770007
Eventually, it became too difficult to keep the bus going, as it wasn’t receiving enough funds, so I sold it to the Museum of Science and Industry (MOSI). After that I decided to start teaching again. However, the closest science teaching jobs nearest to me were 2 to 3 hours away. I said, “I figured if I was gonna have to commute so long and not even be able to stay at home, I might as well move back to California.” And so I did. moved back to Marin County where I took up a teaching, at Tamalpais High School as a freshman science teacher. I taught there for 3 great years, retired and returned back to the farm in Florida.
So here I am doing what I love to do with the ones I love.
