Akron Global Polymer Academy

John Fellenstein is the Content Specialist for the Akron Global Polymer Academy. He works at the University of Akron with the College of Polymer Science and Polymer Engineering, providing STEM educational outreach for the area’s K-12 schools. Mr. Fellenstein holds degrees from Kent State University, and Cleveland State University. He has been a teacher for 28 years, the last twenty as a middle school and high school science teacher for the Cleveland Metropolitan School District. Mr. Fellenstein spent one year working at the NASA Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio. He was selected as the NASA Sabbatical Teacher for the 2002-2003 school year, where he worked with scientists and engineers at the Glenn Research Center’s 5.2 second drop tower. While at NASA, he developed and implemented educational activities, visited schools, and contributed to the NASA publications “Amusement Park Physics With a NASA Twist “and “Physics of Colloids in Microgravity”. In the summer of 2006, Mr. Fellenstein had the opportunity to fly aboard the G-Force One, a microgravity research aircraft as part of Northrop Grumman’s “Weightless Flights of Discovery” program. He was selected, along with 75 other area teachers, to experience “Astronaut Moments” as the plane flew in a parabolic path. Teachers conducted experiments aboard the flight to help explain microgravity and to inspire their students. (It was really fun and a little scary.)