Daniel Barth is a former research scientist who turned his talents for innovative laboratory work toward education. As a scientist, Mr. Barth did work in microbiological toxins for the US government, explored immunology as a National Science Foundation researcher, and was a research staffer at Cal Tech studying the molecular genetics of cancer cells. As a Research Corporation Fellow, he studied the optical physics of DNA and helped develop a device to detect radiation damage in DNA without first removing it from the cell.
Soon after he started teaching in 1985, Mr. Barth realized that traditional textbook based methods of teaching science were very different from the dynamic and exciting way he had experienced science as a researcher. Traditional teaching was driving students away from science; those who stayed loved science in spite of the poor manner in which it was taught. Barth developed a teach by design philosophy that challenged students to apply what they knew to design and build a solution to a practical problem. Students in his classes might find themselves designing and building aircraft, submarines, roller coasters, tractors, or even rocket-powered cars and then testing them in competition with other student teams. He still uses these innovative methods in his classes today.
A seven-year stint moonlighting as a telescope salesman fused a life long passion for astronomy with his teaching career. Astronomy classes were virtually unknown below the college level, and those that were available were essentially physics classes in disguise. Many telescope customers noted that they had signed up for college astronomy classes, but left disappointed. "Selling telescopes convinced me that people didn't want to know the physics of stellar fusion or the gravitational dynamics of a planet's orbit - they wanted to learn how to use a telescope and make a personal connection with the sky," Barth noted. Barth authored a new astronomy program for high school students that emphasized observational astronomy, learning the constellations in the sky, how the solar system worked, and emphasizing planetary and lunar astronomy. Because there was no text available for the class, Barth wrote his own book: Observational Astronomy and a later companion text: Planetology; both are used in schools today.