Inside the Exploratorium: Catching up with SVHS grad Jessica Parker, ’92

For a teacher, a “maker” fanatic and a mom, there may be no more perfect job than that held by Sonoma Valley High School (SVHS) graduate Jessica Parker. With a Ph.D. and early “maker movement” credentials in hand, Parker today oversees teaching and learning for the Exploratorium in San Francisco,

Parker grew up in Sonoma and attended Prestwood Elementary and Altimira Middle School before she started at SVHS, where she played soccer, basketball and softball. Her parents are retired now, but her father worked as an engineer and her mother, after getting her degree at Sonoma State University, worked as a computer scientist. Parker’s parents still live in Sonoma.

After graduating from SVHS in 1992, she went on to major in media studies at Berkeley and continued playing softball there.

“I knew I wanted to go into teaching and education in general,” she said. “I got my teaching credential and my master’s at the same time at Berkeley back in 1997.” After teaching English for a few years, she returned to Cal to get a Ph.D. in education. She then became an assistant professor at Sonoma State in the school of education and during her seven year tenure, Parker co-founded the Maker Certificate Program - a unique program that trains teachers to empower students to pursue creative projects that incorporate science, technology and engineering.

In her spare time, Parker was active in the nonprofit Maker Ed, focusing on hands-on learning, and she authored the book, “Teaching Tech-Savvy Kids: Bringing Digital Media into the Classroom.”

Then a position opened up at the Exploratorim. Parker is now the director of teaching and learning at the popular hands-on science museum, working alongside a team of K-12 educators and offering workshops for educators.

“Our face-to-face institutes are online workshops but we have also developed digital resources for science teachers throughout California,” she said.

She described the position as “a perfect mixture of working with teachers, supporting them with amazing professional development, and wonderful hands-on resources.

“One of the things I love about the job is not only the colleagues and their desire to really support science leaders, but also the philosophy of the Exploratorium and the ability to ask a question about our natural world, and then say, ‘Let’s figure that out together,’” Parker said.

Parker now lives in the Berkeley area and is sheltering in place there with her young children.

Because of COVID-19 and the shelter-in-place orders, the nature of Parker’s work has shifted and changed. Parker and her team are focusing on helping science teachers and science leaders have access to the online resources that they need, while also preparing for the eventual blended model of online learning and face-to-face instruction, once some of the social distancing restrictions are lifted.

“The most difficult thing now, as a manager, is learning how best to support colleagues in this ever-changing academic world,” Parker said.

Parker’s advice to SVHS students during this time is to find ways in which they can support and give back to their community, particularly to those who are elderly, essential workers, or immunosuppressed.

“This is the chance for you as a young adult to step up and lead. Find something that is meaningful to you that helps us as a community continue in this new normal,” she said. “This is our reality for the foreseeable year. See how you can step up and be a leader in this to help the community grapple with this, and - I would hope - thrive in this new normal.”