Dr. Allen Barksdale

Teacher, American History

Rock and roll, films, art, and fashion. Not your typical approaches to American history, but then Dr. Allen Barksdale isn't your typical American history teacher. In courses such as History of American Music, American Pop Culture, and The Significance of the Outlaw in American Culture, Dr. Barksdale draws students in with topics that are relevant and important to them but that raise tough questions about American culture and history.

Max Goldwasser

11th Grade

This isn't your vinegar-and-baking-soda volcano science project. Max used his interest in physics—and his father's racecar—to examine aerodynamics and how alterations to the car's body effected downforce (the flow of air that gives the car more grip on the road and more speed). His tests did more than make for a fascinating project.

They shaved an average of nine seconds off the car's lap speed.

Felicia McCrary

Teacher

How do you interest students in the Spice Trade? Teach it as History of Food and talk about your travels through Morocco. That's how Felicia McCrary does it. When she's not creating innovative courses such as Historical Movies or Barbarians, or publishing articles on the atomic bomb attacks on Japan or the plague, she's traveling. And as student travel coordinator, she's led Galloway students all over the world—Greece, New Zealand, Tobago, South Africa.

Woody Shortridge

12th Grade

Woody built his own Porsche. His band, The Balkans, plays all over Atlanta. And he knows how to kill a roach—just build a trap that emits a tone, shattering a wine glass and dumping the shards onto the (plastic) roach. That at least was his solution to the Roach Trap Project, which requires physics students to apply a year's worth of science to build the most complicated and creative trap possible.