Mr. Castro was born and raised in Oakland, CA. He attended UC Berkeley where he worked on various research projects focusing on dark matter, volcanoes, and climate change. There he completed a B.A. in Atmospheric Science and an M.A. in Earth and Planetary Science. While there he also completed a minor in math and science education through the CalTeach program, where he did student teaching at various middle and high schools in the Bay Area to get his teaching credentials. This sparked his interest in education, but he decided to work in the industry first.
For a few years, Mr. Castro was launching weather balloons for NOAA and the National Weather Service to help us get our daily forecasts. After that he worked at Silvestrum doing climate consulting for various companies across California such as PG&E. Eventually Mr. Castro decided he wanted to put his teaching credentials to use and transitioned into teaching when the principal Ms. Lillian told him about all the cool things Latitude was doing.
Mr. Castro believes strongly in inquiry based learning and project based learning as being the best way to learn science. He is currently a Teaching Fellow at the Exploratorium and works with them closely to create fun and engaging hands-on activities and phenomena for students to explore in his Physics class. His students also build Tiny Homes that get donated to a local tiny home village (YSA) which is focused on housing homeless youth. This project has been a staple at Latitude for years, and Mr. Castro hopes to continue being able to do this project given that there is always a need for housing.
Mr. Castro coaches the Cross Country team; he ran Cross Country and Track & Field at San Leandro High where he set the school record for the 2-mile. He also plays for the local pro ultimate team, the Oakland Spiders, and coaches after school programs with Ultimate Impact, a local non-profit organization that’s focused on bringing ultimate to underprivileged communities. He runs the ultimate elective at Latitude where students can learn how to catch and throw a disc and how to play the sport of ultimate. He also loves backpacking and camping in his free time, and he runs the Latitude Outdoors Club, which goes on various backpacking, camping, and skiing trips with students throughout the school year.
