|
Committee on Status, Contributions, and Future Directions of Discipline Based Education Research
Committee Members
Susan Singer (Chair), Carleton College, Northfield, MN
|
Robert Beichner, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC
|
Stacey Lowery Bretz, Miami University of Ohio, Oxford, OH
|
Melanie Cooper, Clemson University, Clemson, SC
|
Sean Decatur, Oberlin College, Oberlin, OH
|
James Fairweather, Michigan State University, Lansing, MI
|
Kenneth Heller, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN
|
Kim Kastens, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Palisades, NY
|
Michael Martinez, University of California, Irvine, CA
|
David Mogk, Montana State University, Bozeman, MT
|
Laura R. Novick, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN
|
Marcy Osgood, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM
|
Timothy F. Slater, University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY
|
Karl Smith, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN
|
William Wood, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO
|
|
|
Biographical Sketches
SUSAN R. SINGER (chair) is the Laurence McKinley Gould Professor of Natural Sciences in the Biology Department at Carleton College. Her research focuses on the development and evolution of flowering in legumes and on undergraduate learning of genomics. She has directed Carleton’s Perlman Center for Learning and Teaching and chaired the Biology Department. From 1999 to 2001, she was a National Science Foundation program officer in Developmental Mechanisms. A recipient of the American Society of Plant Biology’s (ASPB) Excellence in Teaching award, she is also a AAAS fellow. She co-authors an introductory biology text and is editor of the ASPB’s plant biology education book series. Currently, Dr. Singer serves on the National Academies’ Board on Science Education, NSF’s Education and Human Resources advisory board, the ASPB Education Foundation board, and the iPlant Cyberinfrastructure Collaborative board. She is a former member of the Project Kaleidoscope board. At the National Research Council, she was a member of the Committee on Undergraduate Science Education; the Steering Committee on Criteria and Benchmarks for Increased Learning from Undergraduate STEM Instruction; chaired the Committee on High School Science Laboratories: Role and Vision which authored America's Lab Report; was a science consultant to the Science Learning Kindergarten to Eighth Grade study which authored Taking Science to School; chaired the Committee for Evidence on Promising Practices in Undergraduate Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) Education; and currently serves on the Interacademies committee on Promoting Education on Dual Use Issues in the Life Sciences. Dr. Singer earned a PhD in Biology from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and completed a teacher certification program in New York State.
ROBERT BEICHNER is a member of North Carolina State's Physics Education Research & Development Group. His research focuses on student learning and improving physics education. His largest current project is the creation and study of a learning environment supporting a new way to teach called SCALE-UP: Student-Centered Active Learning Environment for Undergraduate Programs, an approach that has been adopted at more than 50 institutions. The SCALE-UP project is part of Dr. Beichner's efforts to reform physics instruction at a national level. He co-authored, with Raymond Serway, the 5th edition of Physics for Scientists and Engineers, a top-selling introductory calculus-based physics book. He led development of a series of tests aimed at diagnosing students' misconceptions about a variety of introductory physics topics. His kinematics graphing test is being used in high schools and colleges around the world and has been translated into six languages. He is also the founding editor of the APS journal Physical Review Special Topics: Physics Education Research. Dr. Beichner earned his Ph.D. in Science Education from SUNY: Buffalo.
STACEY LOWERY BRETZ is a Professor of Chemistry at Miami University in Oxford, OH. Previously, Dr. Bretz spent five years at the University of Michigan-Dearborn investigating curriculum reform in general chemistry. She spent five years at Youngstown State University (YSU) where her graduate program in chemistry education research (CER) gained a national reputation as a highly effective model for the professional development of high school chemistry teachers. Her current research focuses on the assessment of student learning, the application of cognitive science theories and qualitative methodologies to CER, inquiry in the laboratory and children & chemistry. . Her research has been funded by NSF, the U.S. Department of Education FIPSE program, and the Ohio Board of Regents. Dr. Bretz chaired the Gordon Research Conference on CER in June 2005, currently serves as Chair of the Board of Trustees for the American Chemical Society Division of Chemical Education Examinations Institute and serves on the advisory board for the Center for Workshops in the Chemical Sciences. She is a Fellow of the AAAS and a member of Project Kaleidoscope Faculty 21. She has won the E. Phillips Knox Award for Undergraduate Education at Miami University and both the Distinguished Professor of Teaching and Research Awards at YSU. Dr. Bretz earned her B.A. and M.S. in chemistry at Cornell University and Penn State University, respectively, before returning to Cornell to earn a Ph.D. in chemistry education research.
MELANIE COOPER is an Alumni Distinguished Professor of Chemistry at Clemson University. Her appointment was ground-breaking, not only at Clemson but nationally, in that it was one of the first tenure track appointments in chemistry education in a chemistry department. Dr. Cooper’s research has focused on problem solving in a wide variety of areas, including laboratories and large enrollment lectures. She is interested in methods to assess and improve students’ problem solving abilities and strategies, and has focused on interventions that promote metacognitive activity. An outgrowth of this research is the development and assessment of evidence-driven, research-based curricula. She teaches general and organic chemistry and chemistry education courses. She is a Fellow of the AAAS and has received a number of awards for excellence in teaching. In 2002 she was named an Alumni Distinguished Professor. She has also held a number of elected positions within the American Chemical Society and was the Chair of the Division of Chemical Education in 2007. She received her B.S. M.S. and Ph.D. from the University of Manchester, England.
SEAN DECATUR is Dean of Arts and Sciences and a Professor of Chemistry at Oberlin College. Previously he served as Associate Dean of Faculty for Science and the Marilyn Dawson Sarles Professor of Life Sciences and Professor of Chemistry at Mount Holyoke College. His primary field of research is in the area of protein structure and protein folding. His work is supported by grants from federal agencies such as NSF and NIH, and private foundations including the Dreyfus Foundation, Research Corporation, and Alzheimer’s Association. Dr. Decatur received several national awards for his scholarship, including a National Science Foundation CAREER award, and a Henry Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award. In addition, he was named an “Emerging Scholar of 2007” by Diverse Magazine. Dr. Decatur has scholarly interests in the field of science studies, in particular the intersection of race and science in the United States, and has presented several conference papers in this area. He has taught a wide range of courses in chemistry, including introductory chemistry, physical chemistry, and biophysical chemistry. A strong proponent of the importance of undergraduate research and faculty/undergraduate collaborations in the sciences, he has mentored more than 55 undergraduate students on research projects. Dr. Decatur received a B.A. from Swarthmore College and a Ph.D. in biophysical chemistry from Stanford University.
JAMES FAIRWEATHER is the Mildred B. Erickson Distinguished Chair in Higher, Adult and Lifelong Education at Michigan State University (MSU) where he directs the Center for Higher and Adult Education. Dr. Fairweather is widely known for his work on faculty roles and rewards, reform in undergraduate STEM education, the globalization of higher education policy, and the role of higher education in economic development. Among his most cited works are Faculty Work and Public Trust: Restoring the Value of Teaching and Public Service in American Academic Life and Entrepreneurship and Higher Education: Lessons for Colleges, Universities, and Industry. Dr. Fairweather has been head of the editorial board of the Journal of Higher Education, and has published widely in top journals in the field. Dr. Fairweather’s research has been funded by the National Science Foundation, U.S. Department of Education, Ford Foundation, General Electric Fund, IBM, and the Dutch and Omani governments. Most recently he has been co-PI of the NSF-funded Center for the Integration of Research, Teaching and Learning. Dr. Fairweather received the Exemplary Research career award from the American Educational Research Assocation Division J. He also has been a Fulbright Scholar and held an Erasmus Mundus Professorship granted by the European Union. Dr. Fairweather received the Ph.D. in Higher Education from Stanford University.
KENNETH HELLER is a professor of physics at the University of Minnesota. His research in high energy particle physics focuses on the properties of neutrino oscillations. He has conducted studies of quark dynamics from strong interactions of hadrons, quark confinement from magnetic moments of baryons and their weak decay properties, and muons from high energy interactions. He is also actively involved in research in physics education and served as the president of the American Association of Physics Teachers in 2006. He leads a physics education research group that is investigating better ways to teach problem solving through the use of cooperative groups, context rich problems and expert strategies. As part of this work he is developing techniques to assess problem solving in physics. Dr. Heller served as a member of the NRC’s Committee on Evidence on Selected Innovations in Undergraduate STEM Education. He received his B.A. from the University of California and his Ph.D. in physics from the University of Washington in Seattle.
KIM KASTENS is a Doherty Senior Research Scientist at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University and Director of Columbia's program in Earth & Environmental Science Journalism. Her training and early career in marine geology focused on mapping the seafloor and interpreting the tectonic and sedimentary processes that shaped it. Over the past fifteen years, Kastens has shifted her focus to geoscience education, learning science research, and instructional technology. She codeveloped a course, Teaching & Learning Concepts in Earth Science, which is taught to earth and environmental science Ph.D. students, as well as graduate students who have some experience teaching earth science at the precollege level. Her research interests include: exploration of children’s map skills, use of maps to communicate with policy makers, and visualization of 3-D structures by scientists and geoscience students. She designed and produced Where Are We?, an educational software package and associated curricula, which helps elementary school children learn to translate from the visually perceived terrain around them to a map of that same terrain. She is currently leading the NSF-funded effort to develop a "Synthesis of Research on Thinking and Learning in the Geosciences." Recently she served on the NRC’s Committee on the Review of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Education Program. She holds a B.A. in geology and geophysics from Yale University and a Ph.D. in oceanography from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego.
MICHAEL MARTINEZ is a Professor in the Department of Education at the University of California, Irvine. He serves as Co-Director of the CSU-UCI Joint Ed.D. Program, and Vice Chair of the Department of Education. His interests focus on learning and cognition, intelligence, and science and mathematics education. Currently he conducts research on the nature and modifiability of intelligence. Dr. Martinez previously worked at the Division of Research at the Educational Testing Service in Princeton, New Jersey, where he developed new forms of computer-based testing for assessment in science, architecture, and engineering. Prior to that, he was a high school science teacher. He has published in such journals as the Educational Psychologist, the Journal of Educational Measurement, and the Journal of the American Society for Information Science. While a faculty member at UC Irvine, Dr. Martinez was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship at the University of the South Pacific in the Fiji Islands. He served as Program Director for the National Science Foundation where he managed the NSF's role in the Interagency Educational Research Initiative (IERI). His honors include appointments as College Board Visiting Scholar, Mellon Visiting Scholar at Columbia University, Cambridge University Visiting Scholar, and the APA Presidential Commendation for Contributions to Psychology. Dr. Martinez received his Ph.D. in educational psychology from Stanford University.
DAVID MOGK is a professor of geology at Montana State University. His research interests in geology include the evolution of ancient (>2.5 billion year old) continental crust in SW Montana, petrologic processes in the mid-crust, spectroscopy of mineral surfaces and the search for life in extreme environments (Yellowstone hot springs to Lake Vostok ice core). He is co-PI of the Image and Chemical Analysis Laboratory at Montana State University. He is actively involved in education research and innovation and recently worked on the development of the Digital Library for Earth System Education (DLESE) and the National Science Digital Library (NSDL) supported by NSF. Dr. Mogk has served as Program Director in the Division of Undergraduate Education at NSF (1995-96) and is past Chair of the Education Committee and Education Division of the Geological Society of America. He received the American Geophysical Union Excellence in Geophysical Education Award (2000). He is currently co-PI on numerous NSF-sponsored projects related to geoscience education and is a member of the EarthScope Science and Education Advisory Board. At the NRC, Dr. Mogk served as a member of the Committee on Integrating Education and BioComplexity Research, and more recently on Evidence on Selected Innovations in Undergraduate STEM Education. He received his BS in Geology from the University of Michigan and his MS and PhD in Geology from the University of Washington.
LAURA R. NOVICK is an associate professor at Vanderbilt University, where her primary appointment is in the Department of Psychology and Human Development in the Peabody College of Education and Human Development. She is a recipient of a National Academy of Education Spencer Fellowship and an NRSA postdoctoral fellowship. She has 33 publications in peer-reviewed journals, nine book chapters, and is on the editorial boards of three journals and the advisory board for an NSF-funded engineering and robotics education project at Georgia Tech. Her IES-funded research is exploring issues at the interface of cognitive psychology and evolution education. She is part of an interdisciplinary project working with natural history museums to improve their tree-of-life exhibits. She earned her Ph.D. in cognitive psychology from Stanford University in 1986.
MARCY OSGOOD is Associate Professor and Vice Chair of Education in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of New Mexico. As one of two faculty members in the department whose area of research is pedagogical strategies, she has been instrumental in putting into practice numerous multicontextual learning and teaching modalities, with impressive results in the retention and success of the department’s URM students. She has served as PI/Director, and Outreach Director, respectively, for two NIH-funded New Mexico research and education programs (Southwest Graduate Coalition Bridges to the Doctorate; New Mexico Idea Network of Biomedical Research Excellence (NM-INBRE). She serves as curriculum developer and faculty member for the UNM Premedical Enrichment Program, a post-baccalaureate program for educationally disadvantaged students preparing to enter medical school. She is a mentor to other UNM faculty in curriculum development/course design (in conjunction with UNM-School of Medicine Teacher and Educational Development) and is a faculty member/workshop leader for the NSF-funded FIRST IV Workshops in Biology Teaching and Learning for Postdoctoral Scholars. Prior to her move to New Mexico, she was at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, where she coordinated a Personalized System of Instruction (PSI) program in Biochemistry and taught majors and non-majors Biology. Dr. Osgood received her Ph.D. in Biology from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
TIMOTHY F. SLATER is a professor at the University of Wyoming where he holds the Wyoming Excellence in Higher Education Endowed Chair of Science Education. At the University of Wyoming, he is creating a unique Ph.D. program in which his graduate students conduct education research on the teaching of science, focusing on student conceptual understanding in formal and informal learning environments, inquiry-based curriculum development, and authentic assessment strategies, with a particular emphasis on non-science majors and pre-service teachers. Professor Slater has been the elected board member for the National Association of Science Teachers, the American Astronomical Society, the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, and the Society of College Science Teachers as well as has served on the Editorial Board of the Astronomy Education Review and served multiple terms as chairman of the Astronomy Education Committee of the American Association of Physics Teachers. Dr. Slater holds two bachelors’ degrees from Kansas State University, one in science education and one in physical science. He earned a M.S. from Clemson University in Phyiscs & Astronomy, and a Ph.D. at the University of South Carolina in Geological Sciences.
KARL SMITH is Cooperative Learning Professor of Engineering Education, School of Engineering Education, at Purdue University West Lafayette and is in phased retirement as Morse–Alumni Distinguished Teaching Professor and Professor of Civil Engineering at the University of Minnesota. His research and development interests include building rigorous research capabilities in engineering education; the role of cooperation in learning and design; problem formulation, modeling, and knowledge engineering; and project and knowledge management. He is a Fellow of the American Society for Engineering Education and past Chair of the Educational Research and Methods Division. He has served as PI and Co–PI on several NSF funded projects including two NSF Centers for Learning and Teaching (CLT). He was Co–PI on an NSF CCLI National Dissemination grant entitled "Rigorous Research in Engineering Education: Creating a Community of Practice" and is currently Co-PI on an NSF CCLI Phase III project, “Expanding and sustaining research capacity in engineering and technology education: Building on successful programs for faculty and graduate students.” He has authored or co-authored eight books including How to Model It: Problem Solving for the Computer Age, Active Learning: Cooperation in the College Classroom, 3rd Ed., Cooperative learning: Increasing college faculty instructional productivity; Strategies for energizing large classes: From small groups to learning communities; and Teamwork and project management, 3rd Ed. His Bachelor's and Master's degrees are in Metallurgical Engineering from Michigan Technological University and he holds a Ph.D. in Educational Psychology from the University of Minnesota.
WILLIAM B. WOOD is Distinguished Professor of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology, Emeritus, at the University of Colorado, Boulder. He began his career at Caltech in Pasadena, CA, moving to CU-Boulder in 1977 as Professor and Chair of MCD Biology. He was one of the youngest members of the National Academy of Sciences in recognition of his pioneering research on the assembly of complex viruses that infect bacteria. His research interests more recently have included genetic control and molecular biology of axis formation, pattern formation, and sex determination in development of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, as well as biology education. Dr. Wood has won several awards for his scientific achievements, as well as the Bruce Alberts Award for Distinguished Contributions to Science Education from the American Society for Cell Biology. He co-chaired the NRC Committee that created the Summer Institute on Undergraduate Biology Education and now serves as co-director of this Summer Institute. Previous Academy appointments include the Committee on Programs for Advanced Study of Mathematics and Science in American High Schools, which authored the report Learning and Understanding, the Committee on Developmental Toxicology, and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Predoctoral Fellowships Panel on Genetics and Molecular Biology. He also served as a member of the NRC Committee on Evidence on Selected Innovations in Undergraduate Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) Education. Currently he is a member of the Board on Science Education. Dr. Wood received his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Stanford University.
|
