While working full time as a high school biology and chemistry teacher and as a science mentor teacher for her school district, Pam earned a Masters of Arts degree in Curriculum and Instruction from UC Davis in 1989.  Her thesis, “Design and Evaluation of Teaching Strategies Reflecting Current Theory on Conceptualization in Science” was the beginning of her career as a science education specialist who would focus on effective teaching practices and learning theory in science via collaborative university-school research and through teacher research.  She began work at the Center for Cooperative Research and Extension Services for Schools (CRESS) within the Division of Education at UC Davis in 1990 and has contributed since then in significant ways to campus, community, statewide, and national efforts to improve K-16 science through research. 

Her work at UC Davis has consistently accompanied her studies.  In 1998 she earned her Ph.D. from the University of California while directing the Sacramento Area Science Project (a K-12 professional development project collaborative administered through UC Davis and CSU Sacramento) and while serving the campus and community as an Education Extension Specialist in Science.  Her dissertation is titled  “The Teaching-Related work of a Scientist Who Collaborates with K-12 Teachers:  A Living Case Study”.  The subject of her study was a UCD physicist and included ten years of data about his teaching-related work at the university and within the K-12 arena.  She has presented several papers related to her dissertation at state and national conferences and is known for her work in university-school collaboration in the sciences.

Dr. Castori has worked state-wide as the Interim Executive Director of the California Science Project.  Additionally, she worked for five years as the Coordinator for the CRESS Teacher Research Program within the School of Education, and has directed and facilitated numerous collaborative research grants. For two years Dr. Castori served as the MA Graduate Advisor for the School of Education at UC Davis and taught courses in research methods for classroom-based inquiry for science, math, and agriculture.  Because of Dr. Castori’s graduate and field-based experience, and because of the tangible potential to make a significant difference for underserved students in STEM fields, Pam now works almost full time at CBST as coordinator for 7-12 programs, evaluation, and teacher professional development programs.  Pam thoroughly enjoys working with scientists, teachers, and kids to figure out how to best bring this exciting new field of Biophotonics to public awareness and understanding.