Hi I'm Brian. I'm finishing a PhD in Educational Psychology with an emphasis on how to help teachers learn and teach science better. I am passionate about teaching science and have taught elementary science programs through out the U.S. and abroad and do science assemblies at elementary schools. I love exploring and photographing the world (urban and natural) and have visited all 50 of the United States and 20 countries. I married my best friend and sweetheart for eternity in the Laie, Hawaii temple and now I am a proud father of 4 (2 girls and 2 boys) including a step-daughter with special needs. Being a father is the best job in the world, but it also gives me daily opportunities to develop patience, charity and other Christlike attributes. I love my wife and children more than I can express. Most importantly I love the Lord, I'm grateful for His atoning sacrifice that allows me to return to Him and my Father in Heaven, and I'm thankful that He restored His church to the earth. Because of that, I'm a Mormon.
The oldest of 8, I was raised in the church by wonderful parents who are both descendants of early Mormon pioneers. Yet, I still had to go through my own conversion process. As a teen I was happy living the gospel and preparing for a mission, and I gained the bulk of my testimony of the gospel simply by living gospel principles and reaping the peace and blessings that followed. However, during that time I also decided that I needed to know for sure that the church was true. Since the Book of Mormon is physical, tangible evidence that Joseph Smith was indeed the prophet of the restoration, I determined to follow Moroni's promise in Moroni 10:3-5 (namely to read the Book of Mormon, ponder its teachings and pray to know of its truthfulness). After I finished reading the Book of Mormon I knelt to pray and asked Heavenly Father if it was true. The answer I got was a bit unexpected, but exactly what I needed to hear. Instead of a burning in the bosom or a lightning bolt from heaven a simple thought came to my mind: "why are you asking IF the Book of Mormon is true when you already KNOW the Book of Mormon is true?" It was true that I was asking a question I already knew the answer to. For me it was as President Hinckley once said: "No one, I am satisfied, can prayerfully read the Book of Mormon without coming to a knowledge that it is what it purports to be, and that is another witness of the Lord Jesus Christ speaking out of the dust to those of this generation concerning the Redeemer of the world." Through reading the Book of Mormon and the Bible I came to know, understand and accept my Savior Jesus Christ. I also had tangible evidence that Joseph Smith was the Lord's mouthpiece and that we have living prophets and apostles today who speak the will of God for our times. As I served the Lord as a full-time missionary my testimony was strengthened and became unshaken through the experiences I had serving others as an ordained representative of the Lord Jesus Christ.
After graduation, Brian moved to San Francisco, CA, where he began teaching science programs for Science Adventures. He quickly moved up in the company to become a multi-regional curriculum trainer and site-coordinator at day camp sites in San Francisco and New York. The corporate office then asked him to conduct science camps and staff training at nearly 30 U.S. Air Force bases and other locations. One of the locations was Hong Kong, where the initial programs were so well received that he was hired in December, 2004, as the founding General Manager of the Science Adventures franchise there (www.activekidshk.com). He played an integral role in building that program from the ground up, and it is still running strong today.
Brian is currently finishing his Ph. D. in Educational Psychology and Educational Technology at Michigan State University. In 2008 he presented research which focused on how elementary teachers learn science content from their own teaching practice at the annual conference of the National Association for Research in Science Teaching. His dissertation is a continuation of that line of research with early-career middle school teachers. In addition to teaching undergraduate courses at MSU, Brian helped develop on-line tools, curricula and professional development for science education and worked on a multi-year National Science Foundation funded project focusing on the needs of early-career secondary science and mathematics teachers.
In 2009, with the help of a university fellowship, Brian founded his own science education company: Junior Science World. He currently presents interactive, inquiry-based science assemblies at elementary and middle schools and is developing educational programs for traditional and home school environments. Brian has a deep love of learning and childlike passion for exploring the world around him. He can teach sometimes difficult scientific concepts in fun, exciting, engaging and accessible ways for children and educators alike. In fact, his students in Hong Kong loved his classes so much that some of their parents literally threatened to keep them home from science club if they did not behave, and his science assemblies always have rave reviews.
For Brian, the greatest blessing of graduate school was meeting his beautiful wife Leah. They were married in 2007 in the Laie, HI, temple and have 4 wonderful children, Alexis (13), Ellie (3), Michael (2) and Daniel (4 months). Family is extremely important to Brian and he spends most of his free time playing at home with his kids or taking family road-trips to explore the Great Lakes, Chicago, or church history sites. Brian’s passion for photography fits quite well with his love of travel and he always has a camera in hand. He was thrilled when some of his prints sold at a local art center this year.
Brian and his family love the Lord and have served faithfully in the church. Since college, Brian has served as Ward Mission Leader, Ward Executive Secretary, an ordinance worker at the Oakland, CA temple, and Young Men President and is currently serving as the Elders Quorum President in the Battle Creek Michigan Ward (where he also served as a full-time missionary in 1996). In these capacities he has organized volunteers to help with the annual Battle Creek Cereal Festival and has coordinated efforts by the church to help clean up after two major storms that hit Battle Creek. He also supported his wife in her calling as early morning seminary teacher. Brian is very missionary-minded and often shares his testimony or links to General Conference talks or Mormon Messages on Facebook. After hearing of Elder Ballard’s BYU-H commencement address (Dec. ‘07), the Kinghorns started a blog (http://kinghornclan.blogspot.com) to share their adventures with their family and friends and to share the gospel. Last October, Brian was blessed to baptize one of his fishing buddies, who was able to baptize and confirm his own 8 year old son this summer.
Brian is currently searching for university faculty positions including applying to teach in the Education Department at BYU-Hawaii. He hopes to join the many other members of his immediate family who have become part of the BYU-H community since he graduated. While his ultimate desire is to be where the Lord needs him most, Brian would love to return to Laie, because, in every sense of the word, BYU-Hawaii is truly Ohana.
We had the first Kevin and Karen Rackham family reunion this year and did it in style. Lexi has always wanted to meet Mickey Mouse at his house and so we'd been talking about taking her to Disney World to celebrate her 13th birthday for the last few years. Nana and Poppy loved the idea, rented a house for the week down there and took all of their kids and grandkids to Disney for a week. THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! This trip would not have been possible without their generosity in funding the majority of the trip for everyone. We've finally picked out some of our favorite pictures so here are the slide shows. For some reason the slideshows are backwards in spite of numerous attempts to fix them. Sorry
