Ron Kirkley is currently the Northeastern Outreach Coordinator for the Science House at North Carolina State University. His primary responsibility is implementing the Rural High Schools component of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute Student Research Exploration and Precollege Outreach Program.

Ron has taught high school physics and chemistry for 9 years. He formally taught at Southeast Raleigh High School for Accelerated Studies, Wake County's newest math, science and technology magnet school.

Ron was a member of the Team Science Program at the Science House at NC State where he became involved in using microcomputer-based laboratory equipment in the high school science classroom. He has developed several activities for use with MBL equipment and has presented these ideas at the North Carolina State Science Teachers Association meeting. He has also taught workshops at the Science House and in Johnston County on using MBL to teach science.

His research interests include Interactive Lecture Demonstrations and the comparison of the level of learning using simulations such as Interactive Physics versus the use of MBL equipment.