Karen Sirum -As a Science Faculty with Education Specialty (SFES) in a department of biological sciences, my area of research encompasses two main areas: in both I work to bring interactive engagement teaching strategies and inquiry-based lab experiences to the gateway biology courses. Specifically, one project involves introductory biology course redesign, and an integrated assessment approach, including the design and implementation of a new instrument called the Experimental Design Ability Test (EDAT), which is used to measure, in pre/posttest format, the development of students’ scientific thinking skills. In addition to transforming the courses I teach, my second area involves research into how best to help science faculty and future faculty approach their teaching as they do their research—scientifically and based on the literature on how people learn. To this end, my role as a tenure track SFES in biology with 20 years research experience in biochemistry and molecular biology allows me to bridge the teaching and research gap in the sciences. In the past 5 years, I designed and facilitated 10 one-year long Scientific Teaching Learning Communities (STLCs) involving a combined total of ~150 science faculty and future faculty who are now trying new interactive teaching strategies in their classrooms. In STLCs, 8-14 participants meet regularly over the academic year to share resources and ideas, and to provide support and a forum for talking and learning about teaching. I also designed and teach a 3 credit graduate level Biology Department course called “Teaching College Biology”, and I supervise a Biology Education R&D group that involves undergraduate, Masters, and PhD Biological Sciences students who are getting their degrees in Biology Education Research.
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Nancy Pelaez- Before joining the faculty at Purdue as Associate Prof. of Biological Science in 2007, I was at California State University, Fullerton, a Hispanic-serving institution, and from that position I spent a year as a Program Director in the Division of Undergraduate Education at NSF. As a former Biology and Chemistry teacher, I enjoyed ten years science teaching experience in Bogota, Colombia and three years at Indianapolis Public Schools (a large urban district). I am an active member and currently on the Steering Committee for the Teaching Section of the American Physiological Society (APS). My BS was in Biology summa cum laude from Tulane University and my Ph.D. in Physiology and Biophysics from Indiana University School of Medicine was supported by a HHMI fellowship. I collaborate with an outstanding team of Science Faculty with Education Specialties (SFES) who are investigating the role of SFES in science departments. My main current project introduces students to experimental and quantitative analysis in a large lecture course for first-year biology students with support from NSF#0837229 Teaching Ethical, Experimental, and Quantitative (TEEQ) Biology through Problem-Based Writing with Peer Review and with a cross-college team of bioscience faculty who together are Deviating from the Standard: Integrating Statistical Analysis and Experimental Design into Life Science Education (HHMI). My biggest challenge is to establish Purdue's new doctoral program for science education research in the Biology Department, where several doctoral students are examining the types of errors students make when they apply quantitative reasoning to experimental design and evaluation of data.
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Donald French - Oklahoma State University
I am a professor at Oklahoma State University, where my primary responsibility is to coordinate the large-enrollment, general-education, mixed-majors, introductory biology course. I also coordinate the University Faculty Preparation program. I earned my doctorate in Zoology at Indiana University in the area of Ethology. At OSU, my focus has been biology education. My research interests are primarily in the areas of the impact of technology on student learning and factors related to the efficacy of inquiry-based labs and active-learning activities in lecture. My students and I have employed both qualitative and quantitative methods including direct observation, surveys, interviews, and examination of grade data sets. Aided by several NSF grants for materials development and curriculum reform for lecture and laboratory, we developed multimedia scenarios to provide a context and active-learning environment in which students collaborate to construct their understanding of biological concepts and apply them to problem solving and inquiry-based labs where students develop and test hypothesis. Ongoing projects include use of ebooks, the effect of formative assessment on students’ performances on subsequent lab reports, podcast use, developing a concept inventory for evo-devo, identifying student-driven social-networking uses, identifying needs of and barriers to effective TA training, investigating the effect that experience in teaching inquiry-based labs at the college level has on pre-service teachers, and researching factors affecting successful transitions from 2 year institutions.
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Kelly McDonald. I am completing my first year as an assistant professor at California State University, Sacramento (CSUS) in the department of Biological Sciences, where I am currently teaching, coordinating and developing curriculum for a lower division molecular and cellular biology course. I am also currently developing a course for graduate teaching assistants. I am relatively new to the field of science education and science education research. I obtained my Ph.D. from University of Florida in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, did post-doctoral work in environmental toxicology for USGS, and spent five years in the Biotechnology industry at Celera Genomics and Applied Biosystems. My academic career began at American River College in Sacramento, CA, where I taught biotechnology and microbiology and served as an education outreach coordinator and director of the North Valley Biotechnology Center. I was co-PI and coordinator of an NSF grant to train high school teachers in Applied Biotechnology and Bioinformatics. Through this experience, I became interested in (and began to study) the use of scenario-based bioinformatics activities in the science classroom (both high school and college). This led to additional studies in the effective use of technology to engage students and facilitate learning. I am currently developing curriculum that integrates bioinformatics activities, clicker case studies and a course blog. I am also interested in the breadth vs. depth issue in lower division biology courses, and I'm beginning a study of the impact of an independent research project that allows students to explore (in depth) the molecular and genetic basis of a single-gene disorder of their choice.
John Rogan
Seems I am the only one around here who is retired! Without going into too many details, in 1980 as a family we moved from South Africa to California where I obtained my PhD at UCR in science education. On graduating, we all moved to Montana where I taught at the University of Montana Western. In 1997, following the end of apattheid, my wife and I returned to South Africa where I was offered a position at the Centre for Science Education at Pretoria University. While this position provided many exciting opportunities, one that stands out was partnering with some colleagues from Japan on what was called the Mpumalanga Secondary Science Initiative. Most of my published research since about 2000 has focused on the implementation of this project.
In my retirement I continue to do some writing,mostly with Trevor Anderson and some of my Japanese colleagues. Again with my Japanese colleagues,we have initiated a small scale research project in South Africa on the implementation of a Zone of Feasible Innovation in a few high school biology classrooms.
Names and email addresses:
Karen Sirum, ksirum@bgsu.edu
Nancy Pelaez, npelaez@purdue.edu
Don French, dfrench@okstate.edu
Kelly McDonald, mcdonald@csus.edu
John Rogan, jmroganza@yahoo.com
Trevor Anderson, anderson@ukzn.ac.za
More About Us:
I am a professor at Oklahoma State University, where my primary responsibility is to coordinate the large-enrollment, general-education, mixed-majors, introductory biology course. I also coordinate the University Faculty Preparation program. I earned my doctorate in Zoology at Indiana University in the area of Ethology. At OSU, my focus has been biology education. My research interests are primarily in the areas of the impact of technology on student learning and factors related to the efficacy of inquiry-based labs and active-learning activities in lecture. My students and I have employed both qualitative and quantitative methods including direct observation, surveys, interviews, and examination of grade data sets. Aided by several NSF grants for materials development and curriculum reform for lecture and laboratory, we developed multimedia scenarios to provide a context and active-learning environment in which students collaborate to construct their understanding of biological concepts and apply them to problem solving and inquiry-based labs where students develop and test hypothesis. Ongoing projects include use of ebooks, the effect of formative assessment on students’ performances on subsequent lab reports, podcast use, developing a concept inventory for evo-devo, identifying student-driven social-networking uses, identifying needs of and barriers to effective TA training, investigating the effect that experience in teaching inquiry-based labs at the college level has on pre-service teachers, and researching factors affecting successful transitions from 2 year institutions.
John Rogan
Seems I am the only one around here who is retired! Without going into too many details, in 1980 as a family we moved from South Africa to California where I obtained my PhD at UCR in science education. On graduating, we all moved to Montana where I taught at the University of Montana Western. In 1997, following the end of apattheid, my wife and I returned to South Africa where I was offered a position at the Centre for Science Education at Pretoria University. While this position provided many exciting opportunities, one that stands out was partnering with some colleagues from Japan on what was called the Mpumalanga Secondary Science Initiative. Most of my published research since about 2000 has focused on the implementation of this project.
In my retirement I continue to do some writing,mostly with Trevor Anderson and some of my Japanese colleagues. Again with my Japanese colleagues,we have initiated a small scale research project in South Africa on the implementation of a Zone of Feasible Innovation in a few high school biology classrooms.
Trevor Anderson