Google Custom Search
 

Fermilab's Batavia site is open to the public.

View more details on hours, activities and other site access requirements.

 
   
   

Education Office: Laura Mengel

Laura Mengel is the Fermilab LInC Project Coordinator. LInC is a program to develop educational leadership teams that effectively integrate technology to support engaged/constructivist learning. She has been using the Internet since 1987, watching the web develop since 1991, and proposed the project in the Fall of 1993, as soon as a web browser (NCSA Mosaic) became available for the Macintosh. Laura and a team of lead teachers have facilitated LInC classes since 1994. Laura has also designed and facilitated numerous other Internet-related workshops for K-12 educators.

Originally, the LInC course was offered in a face-to-face format for local teachers. Since 1997, it has been offered as a partial-online or full-online course. Offering the course fully online has enabled LInC to serve a more diverse group of educators, including more teams from urban and rural districts. To date, the LInC program has reached over 500 educators from 28 states.

Besides coordinating LInC, Laura provides technical support for ~80 web servers at Fermilab including the main Fermilab web server and the Education Center web server.

Before Fermilab, Laura was employed at Philips Research Laboratories (1987-1991) and worked with local educators on scenarios for effective educational use of networked multimedia hypertext devices over ISDN and fiber-optic lines. She also proposed that Philips' then current stand-alone multimedia hypertext offering (CD-I: Compact Disk Interactive) be expanded to be a networked multimedia hypertext device.

Other projects at Philips included designing a user-interface for switching work environments for a combination computer / television / telephone device, and working with a team to develop rapid prototyping software for building user interfaces.

Laura earned an M.S. in Computer Science at Columbia University (NY, NY) before moving to the Chicago area in 1991 to work at Fermilab. She earned her B.A. in Education with Distinction from the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor, MI) with a teaching certificate in secondary Mathematics and Psychology. Laura started teaching at age 14 and earned funds for college by teaching Ballet, Jazz, Tap, Creative Movement, and Piano classes 25 hours per week each Summer during high school and college.

Laura has combined her passion for education and her understanding of technology to assist teachers in improving K-12 education.

Computing Division & Fermilab Education Office ♦ P.O. Box 500, MS 369 ♦ Batavia, IL 60510-0500
630-840-8107 ♦ email:lauram@fnal.gov