Biography
Dr. Guntharp has been at PBA since 2007, coming from 11 years’ teaching at a university in Ohio. Prior to obtaining her Ph.D. in mathematics education, she had been a middle-school teacher and a high-school teacher.
Since being at PBA, Dr. Guntharp has held positions on the executive board of the Florida Council of Teachers of Mathematics (FCTM) and on PBA Faculty Senate. In May 2019 she was awarded the post-secondary mathematics Teacher of the Year by the Palm Beach County Council of Teachers of Mathematics (PBCCTM.) She has been involved in several grants, two of them in which she was the principal investigator, and all of them involved the use of technology in the classroom.
With a grant from AT&T, she purchased a classroom set of TI-Nspire calculators and a TI-Navigator System which affords students the ability to connect wirelessly to her computer for the purpose of, among other things, wireless document transfer, student screen capture, and anonymous question and answer.
With a grant from FCTM Dr. Guntharp was able to purchase several robotic cars that students code via the calculator in order to move the robotic car in mathematical ways, including forward, backward, left and right at specified angles, to a specified place on a set of coordinate axes, and along specified equations.
Dr. Guntharp’s research interests are in the area of improving teaching by engaging students in worthwhile activities in our technology-rich twenty-first century. Her Ph.D. dissertation was a case study entitled, “Examining the Changing Beliefs of a High-School Physics Teacher Integrating Mathematics Through Technology.”
Because of her enjoyment of physics, as well as mathematics, when she obtained her master’s degree, it came with a concentration in physics. She often collaborates with physics professor, Dr. Fred Browning, giving presentations at the Teachers Teaching with Technology International Conference. She has also taught the science-oriented honors class that studied the history, philosophy, and theology of cosmology.
Outside of PBA, Dr. Guntharp enjoys time with her husband and dog. She plays the bass guitar on her church worship team, and has occasionally played the bass guitar for summer chapels at PBA.
Degrees
PHD in Educational Theory and Practice, Ohio State University | MA in Mathematics, Ohio State University | BS in Education – Math, Ohio State University