Dr. Sharon Mistretta

            Currently, I teach Coding, Robotics, and 1:1 Devices for the NASA Endeavor program to STEM educators in online, international settings. I successfully defended my dissertation regarding the underrepresentation of women in STEM courses, majors, and careers at Johns Hopkins School of Education with a specialization in online teaching and learning. My graduation is in May 2019.

 

            My journey in the field of technology reflects in my teaching where I instruct all my students in best practices to prepare them for the global workforce.

I started my journey in Data Processing in 1979 at Fairleigh Dickinson University on a paper tape machine coding BASIC computer programs. Each line of code was a series of punched dots on a one-inch wide ribbon of paper. Your roll of paper tape had to be read back into the machine to run the program. It frequently ripped. My experiences with paper-tape were around the same time that Bill Gates wrote Microsoft's first product on an Altair 8K BASIC housed on paper tape. Next, was FORTRAN on Hollerith punched cards. One line of Fortran code keyed into a machine which in turn punched individual cards with your lines of code. You had to keep these cards in order. If you dropped your stack, it was a disaster. One of our memorable assignments was to take a phrase and determine if it was a palindrome. A palindrome is a word or phrase that is the same forwards as it is backward. How about, "a man a plan a canal Panama"? We had to take the phrase and "bump" our character pointers from the front and the back to compare their ASCII value.

 

            Then, it was on to Datapoint minicomputers. The minicomputer was a forerunner of the personal computer. We coded on terminals into files in the Databus language. It was here that I coded Warranty Claims systems for Sharp Electronics, and Inventory Control programs for Becton Dickinson. Wanting to go onto bigger and better things, I accepted a position with Manufacturers Hanover Trust. It was here that I coded wire transfer systems in COBOL, JCL, and CICS on the IBM Mainframe.

 

            After having my fill of programming, I spent several years in Project Management for United Jersey Bank to convert their manual, paper-intensive Letter of Credit Department into an automated environment on DEC equipment. My focus was on managing all the departments and companies to make the whole project come together.

While completing my master's degree in Computing and Education at Columbia University Teachers College, I served as an Intern for Reach the World Foundation in Manhattan. I assisted teachers with the integration of technology into the curriculum.

 

            From 2008 through the present, my teaching positions as a technology teacher range from PreK-3 through masters degree students in private and public school systems. It is my goal to teach my students to be producers rather than consumers of technology.

 

            I continue to coach robotics teams including a top-thirty placement with my high-school robotics team in the Google Moonbots competition. I currently coach a FIRST Robotics Tech team associated with an after-school program in Paterson, N.J.

 

            My husband and I have two beautiful daughters, and one very cute miniature schnauzer.