About Us

Earl Whitney

Earl is an actuary by trade (with over 30 years experience) and a volunteer math tutor by choice. He has also taught Sunday School for over 30 years and is a Certified Internet Safety Trainer. Earl has tutored mathematics ever since he was in junior high school, over 40 years ago.

As an actuary, Earl worked for the Federal government for six years before beginning an extensive career as a consultant at Milliman, Inc. in 1984. Earl led the firm's efforts in the Medicare arena, and worked with all types of health entities, from doctors and hospitals to health plans, PPOs and HMOs.

Most recently, Earl has been tutoring math at the Damonte Ranch High School (DRHS) in Reno, Nevada, where he had occasion to write most of the material on this website. Many of these resources have been used in the classroom and in the after-school tutoring program at DRHS.

Earl believes that too many education sites charge for their materials, and would like to see many more resources on the web be free. Hence, the materials on this website are available free of charge to students, parents, and teachers for educational purposes. We hope you find them useful.

DRHS Leaders, Teachers and Students

The teachers and students at Damonte Ranch High School (DRHS) in Reno, NV have been instumental in both the inspiration and the encouragement to begin this project and to move it forward. It started as a way to help students see how to work out Algebra problems when both the teacher and tutor were busy during Rick Vaughn's Freshman Seminar class. It has since emerged into what you see today.

Rick's class was helpful in both setting the stage for the site and, in many cases, the development of materials. For example, two students worked on the Epicycloid Curve to help establish the conjectures identified in that module of the Algebra (Main) App. The conjectures are interesting, and were subsequently found to be true by researching the literature. Other students helped think through various issues and suggested materials that could be helpful to students and teachers.

The rest of the DRHS Math Department, under the leadership of A'Laina Ault, Mathematics Department Chair, pitched in their own thoughts about how the materials might be more useful, both in and out of the classroom. Even though she is incredibly busy, A'Laina took time to discuss how the materials on this site could be used to help the students and the teachers at DRHS. Rick Vaughn and Sara Williams sat with Earl to inquire about the PC Apps and make suggestions as to how they could be improved. Sarah Hemler, Tim McCartin, Peter Gannon, Chris Magrum, Maresa Martin and Karen Johnson assisted with materials in the Math Handbooks, on the Math by Subject pages and elsewhere on the site.

Denise Hausauer and Darvel Bell, Principals at the Damonte Ranch High School, have been the leaders of the leaders, so to speak, at DRHS. They have created an environment at the school that emphasizes learning and compassion for all students. Throughout the school are reminders of how each student is important and how anyone can become what they want to be if they are willing to work hard. In addition, visitors and volunteers are always greeted with a smile and warmly welcomed to the school. In this environment, creativity is allowed to take hold and this website was born.

This website and the creation of the materials within it would not have been possible without the inspiration and support of the leaders, teachers and students at DRHS. We are most grateful.