Former engineer uses talents in the classroom

Published 10:16 am Tuesday, April 21, 2015

EX-ENGINEER: Math teacher Frances Warren explaines how the plunger works on the straw rocket launcher used by the students in her calculus class at Porters Chapel Academy.

EX-ENGINEER: Math teacher Frances Warren explaines how the plunger works on the straw rocket launcher used by the students in her calculus class at Porters Chapel Academy.

Students often complain the concepts learned in the classroom will not be useful in life outside of school, but the students at Porters Chapel Academy have a teacher who can explain her first-hand application of the skills she teaches.

Frances Warren has spent the last 15 years teaching at Porters Chapel, but the math teacher started her career as an engineer.

“I have a master’s and a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering,” she said. “I worked in that field for six years.”

Email newsletter signup

Sign up for The Vicksburg Post's free newsletters

Check which newsletters you would like to receive
  • Vicksburg News: Sent daily at 5 am
  • Vicksburg Sports: Sent daily at 10 am
  • Vicksburg Living: Sent on 15th of each month

Warren said she has always loved math and science, which is what led her to engineering in the first place.

“Math is something I enjoy teaching because it’s fun to watch the kids as they catch on to things,” she said.

Warren teaches geometry, algebra II, advanced algebra, trigonometry, senior math and calculus.

“I was given the opportunity to come out here and start teaching,” she said “I love the kids, I enjoy the teaching, and the engineering background gives me a good background to teach the classes I teach.”

Students often ask why they need to learn certain math skills or how they will use them, Warren said.

“I think my engineering background helps out with that too,” she said. “We talk about different things so it becomes real instead of just a math problem in a book.”

Warren’s calculus class recently made a straw rocket launcher.

“I went to a conference and they sold these for $200 a piece, and I said that is not that hard to design,” she said. “I went online and found one that’s the $10 straw rocket launcher. They have fun with it.”

Warren said her three calculus students are currently altering the designs by adding fins to the straws to enhance performance.

“I try to do some things, especially with that group, the kids who have taken the extra step to take calculus, to apply the math and the science and mix it all together to reward them,” she said.

Most of the classes at Porters Chapel are small, which allows for more opportunities and individualized attention, Warren said.

“I have met kids up here at 7:30 in the morning if they needed extra help for a test,” she said. “That’s one thing that I can do because we’re a smaller school.”

Warren said she enjoys teaching at a Christian school.

“I also have the opportunity to witness to my kids,” she said. “When there are issues we can discuss them, and that’s a plus to teaching in this environment.”

Warren wears several different hats at Porters Chapel, including student council sponsor, technology coordinator and assistant principal.

“I teach full time, but I also do those things on the side,” she said. “I have gone back to school and gotten my administration degree too.”

After Warren’s time as an engineer at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Engineer Research and Development Center, she spent 10 years as a stay-at-home mom raising her three children, Tim, Amy and Matthew.

“All three of them graduated from here, and I taught all three of them,” she said.

Warren likes to cook, craft and camp when she’s not in the classroom.

“Sometimes we go to the state parks, and we also go to the Neshoba County Fair,” she said.

Warren said she has an Italian pasta casserole that is always a hit.

“I like to do desserts,” she said. “There’s a chocolate chip cheesecake I like to fix.”

Warren and her husband Terry, an electrical engineer, attend Westminster Presbyterian Church.

“I’m in charge of the crafts for vacation Bible school at church every summer,” she said. “My daughter and I do different things, whatever catches our eye.”