Mr. Cochrane grew up locally and joined the Marine Corps in 2007. While in the Marine Corps, Rick completed two combat deployments (Iraq in 2008 and Afghanistan in 2010).

Cochrane left the USMC after 5 years of honorable service to attend Eckerd College and graduated in 2016. Rick worked as a SCUBA instructor throughout college where he discovered his passion for teaching and especially enjoyed working with kids. After graduation, he became a teacher with Engineering for Kids where he taught STEM to kids ages 4-14.

Mr. Cochrane believes STEM class ties together other areas of our curriculum through hands-on projects where students are challenged with an activity before receiving content. More broadly he believes STEM is science, technology, engineering, and math applied to solve real-world problems that foster critical thinking skills.

Rick enjoys traveling with his wife and 2-year-old daughter in his free time. He is passionate about SCUBA and loves diving local rivers in search of fossils and artifacts. Rick has donated several scientifically significant fossils to the Florida Museum of Natural History and is excited to start a Paleontology club at AFA.

Mr. Cochrane works hard to ensure that Admiral Farragut Academy has the best STEM elementary school program in St. Petersburg and Tampa.