Learning Science: Gaming, Simulations, and Education
Committee Biosketches
Margaret Honey, (Chair) is president and CEO of the New York Hall of Science. Her extensive work in the field of education technology includes serving as: Senior Vice President for Strategic Initiatives and Research at Wireless Generation, Vice President of the Education Development Center (EDC), and Director of EDC’s Center for Children and Technology. She co-directed the Northeast and Islands Regional Education Laboratory to help educators, policy makers, and communities access and leverage the most current research about learning and K-12 education. She has directed numerous research projects including efforts to identify teaching practices and assessments for 21st century skills, new approaches to teaching computational science in high schools, collaborations with PBS, CPB and some of the nation’s largest public television stations, and investigations of data-driven decision-making tools and practices. With Bank Street College of Education faculty, she created one of the first internet-based professional development programs. Dr. Honey has served as the chair of the Committee on IT Fluency and High School Graduation Outcomes: A Workshop with the Center for Education and the Computer Science and Telecommunications Board. She earned a B.A. in social theory at Hampshire College, Amherst, Massachusetts, and both her M.A. and Ph.D. in developmental psychology from Columbia University, New York, New York.
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William B. Bonvillian is director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Washington, D.C. Office. At MIT, he works to support MIT’s strong and historic relations with federal R&D agencies, and its role on national science policy. Prior to that position, he served for seventeen years as a senior policy advisor in the U.S. Senate. His legislative efforts included science and technology policies and innovation issues. He worked extensively on legislation creating the Department of Homeland Security, on Intelligence Reform, on defense and life science R&D, and on national competitiveness and innovation legislation. He has lectured and given speeches before numerous organizations on science, technology and innovation questions, is on the adjunct faculty at Georgetown, and has taught in this area at Georgetown, MIT, and George Washington. He was the recipient of the IEEE Distinguished Public Service Award in 2007. His book, with Distinguished Prof. Charles Weiss of Georgetown, Structuring an Energy Technology Revolution, will be published by MIT Press in March 2009, adding to an extensive list of his publications. He is a member of the Board on Science Education of the National Academies of Sciences, and serves on the Academies’ Committees on Modernizing the Infrastructure of the NSF’s Federal Funds (R&D) Survey and recently served on Exploring the Intersection of Science Education and the Development off 21st Century Skills. Mr. Bonvillian earned a B.A. from Columbia in history, a M.A.R. in religion from Yale, and a J.D. from Columbia School of Law.
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Janis Cannon-Bowers is associate professor of Digital Media at the University of Central Florida (UCF), and a senior research scientist at the UCF’s Institute for Simulation and Training. Dr. Cannon-Bowers is founding director of UCF’s new Center for Research in Education, Art, Technology and Entertainment (CREATE). She previously held the position of senior scientist for training systems for the U.S. Navy, and has more than seventeen years of experience conducting research into learning and performance in complex systems. Dr. Cannon-Bowers is an active researcher, with over 125 scholarly publications and presentations, and serves on the Editorial Boards of several research journals. She is currently principal investigator on several efforts aimed at applying technology to K-12 education and workforce development, including grants from the National Science Foundation to investigate the development of synthetic learning environments and educational games for science education. She earned her B.A. in psychology at Eckerd College, St. Petersburg, FL, and both her M.A. and her Ph.D. in industrial/organizational psychology at the University of South Florida in Tampa.
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Eric Klopfer is associate professor of science education at MIT, director of MIT's Scheller Teacher Education Program (TEP), with a joint appointment at the MIT Media Lab. Dr. Klopfer is the MIT Education Arcade Initiative co-director, and the Scheller Career Development Professor of Science Education and Educational Technology at MIT. His research focuses on the development and use of computer games and simulations for building understanding of science and complex systems. He created StarLogo TNG, a new platform for helping kids create 3D simulations and games using a graphical programming language. On handheld computers, Klopfer’s work includes participatory simulations, which embed users inside complex systems, and augmented reality simulations, which create a hybrid virtual/real space for exploring intricate scenarios in real time. He currently runs the StarLogo project, a desktop platform that enables students and teachers to create computer simulations of complex systems. Dr. Klopfer earned his B.S. in biology at Cornell University and his Ph.D. in zoology from the University of Wisconsin, Madison.
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James Pellegrino is liberal arts and sciences distinguished professor of cognitive psychology and distinguished professor of education at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). He is co-director of UIC's interdisciplinary Center for the Study of Learning, Instruction, and Teacher Development. Dr. Pellegrino's current work is focused on analyses of complex learning and instructional environments, including those incorporating powerful information technology tools, with the goal of better understanding the nature of student learning and the conditions that enhance deep understanding. A special concern of his research is the incorporation of effective formative assessment practices, assisted by technology, to maximize student learning and understanding. Dr. Pellegrino has served on the NRC Board of Testing and Assessment and co-chaired the Committee on the Cognitive Science Foundations for Assessment, which issued the report Knowing What Students Know: The Science and Design of Educational Assessment. He recently helped the College Board build frameworks for curriculum, assessment and professional development in AP Biology, Chemistry, Physics, and Environmental Science. Dr. Pellegrino earned his B.A. in psychology from Colgate University, Hamilton, New York and both his M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Colorado.
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Ray Perez oversees the Training & Education Technology program and the Applied Instructional Research programs at the U.S. Office of Naval Research (ONR). At ONR, he manages a range of learning technology projects that include gaming, training, and simulations for military and educational purposes. The training projects are research based and include extensive use of computer technology, such as virtual reality, to provide realistic simulations and scenarios for U.S. Naval forces. He has also been involved in the research, development, and implementation of specialized artificial intelligence techniques to emulate idealized instructors and tutors, or teammates and opponents. Some of his ONR work has involved collaborating with Department of Defense Education Activity (DODEA) schools. One recent program direction involves research on coaching strategies for fast-moving, dynamically evolving military tasks. Dr. Perez earned his B.A. in Psychology, and M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in Educational Psychology at the University of California Los Angeles.
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Nichole Pinkard is Director of Innovation for the University of Chicago's Urban Education Institute (UEI) where she plays a leading role in UEI's engagement in creating optimal learning environments that span school, home and community. Dr. Pinkard has led efforts to implement 1:1 computing in urban schools, integrate new media into core instruction, and create new media learning opportunities outside of the school day. Dr. Pinkard is a recipient of the Jan Hawkins Award for Early Career Contributions to Humanistic Research and Scholarship in Learning Technologies and an NSF Early CAREER Fellowship. She serves on the Advisory Board of the Joan Ganz Cooney Center, and on the National Advisory Committee for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Health Games Research program. Her current scholarly interests include the design and use of pedagogical-based social networks, new media literacy learning outcomes, ecological models of learning. She holds a B.S. in Computer Science from Stanford University, an M.S. in Computer Science from Northwestern University and a Ph.D. in Learning Sciences from Northwestern University.
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Constance Steinkuehler is an assistant professor in the Educational Communication and Technology Program in the curriculum and instruction department at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Her research is on cognition, learning, and literacy in massively multiplayer online (MMO) games. Current interests include “pop-cosmopolitanism” in online worlds and the intellectual practices that underwrite such a disposition, including informal scientific reasoning, collaborative problem solving, media literacy (as production, not just consumption), computational literacy, and the social learning mechanisms that support the development of such expertise (e.g., reciprocal apprenticeship, collective intelligence). She earned B.A. degrees in mathematics, english, and religious studies from the University of Missouri-Columbia, and both her M.A. in educational psychology and Ph.D. in curriculum and instruction from the University of Wisconsin-Madision.
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Carl Wieman (NAS) is distinguished professor of physics and winner of the 2001 Nobel Prize in physics for studies of the Bose-Einstein Condensate. He has been a member of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) since 1995. He is also a 2001 recipient of the National Science Foundation (NSF) Director’s Award for Distinguished Teaching Scholars as well as an award for distinguished teaching from the Carnegie Foundation. Dr. Wieman's research has involved the use of lasers and atoms to explore fundamental problems in physics. His physics research group at the University of Colorado - Boulder has carried out a variety of precise laser spectroscopy measurements, including the most accurate measurements of parity nonconservation in atoms and the discovery of the anapole moment. He has also worked extensively on using laser light and magnetic fields to cool and trap atoms and investigating the physics of ultracold atoms. Since 2000, Dr. Wieman has worked on the National Task Force for Undergraduate Physics which emphasizes improving undergraduate physics programs as a whole: introductory and advanced courses for all students, preparation of K-12 teachers, undergraduate research opportunities, and the recruitment and mentoring of students for diverse careers. Prior to becoming the chair for BOSE, Dr. Wieman was a member of the study committee addressing the state of high school science laboratories. Presently, Professor Wieman divides his time between the University of British Columbia where he leads the Carl E. Wieman Initiative in Science Education and the University of Colorado-Boulder. Presently, the majority of his work is dedicated to reforming science teaching. Dr. Wieman received his Ph.D. from Stanford University.
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